Demon King Alba
by Spritlezy
Summary: What if, instead of Lake, Elf picked Alba to be the next Demon King? Well now, that would screw up the story quite a bit.
1. The Hero, Gone

**This anime/manga really needs more love. My favorite anime of all time! It makes me mad that I can't read Japanese...**

**So, this is my wacko idea of Alba becoming Demon King. I'm surprised this idea hasn't been done yet (edit: Actually it has, but it's in a different language and Google Translate sucks so I don't understand the majority of it). Not sure where I'll be going with this, the story writes itself. Maybe some Albatross? I don't know, why don't you guys decide.**

**I'll try to include some comedy, but Haruhara's humor is unmatched...**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Senyuu, I would have made Albatross canon already.**

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**Chapter 1: The Hero, Gone**

No one moved, no one even dared to loosen a single muscle. The tension was so thick they could have cut it with a butter knife. Ross and Lake just arrived, Alba appeared soon after (for no apparent reason) still dressed in his prison wear that he oh-so-adores ("I don't adore it!"). Alba, Ross, and Crea stood at the front protecting everyone behind them. Lake, Salt, Lym, and Lake's mother Cecily were also standing tense and ready for anything. Well, all of them except Cecily who was just staring at Ross like he was an alien. In fact, it was her that broke the awkward atmosphere.

"Shion?" Next thing they knew, Cecily was in between Ross and Alba still staring at Ross. It was rather creepy, the face she was making and how she got next to them so fast, that Alba jumped away out of reflex. She appeared so suddenly that it even made Ross sweat, "Who are you?!"

Elf smirked across from them, "Shion-kun, don't you recognize your own mother?"

"Mother?" Shion stood stiff as the lady wrapped her now serpent-like body around him. He glanced down at Lake next to him and used the arm that wasn't trapped by his mother to point at him, "What about this guy?"

Dezember began ranting; something about disrespect and Lord Lake, but Elf pushed him down. The shadow guy didn't stay down for long and quickly got up to start yelling at Elf, course the tanned guy didn't care and just shrugged it off. "I already told you, we've done that bloodline already. It's time for someone new."

Just the way he said it sent shivers down Alba's spine. He knew something bad was coming and tensed his body even more that it hurt. "Alba." The brunet braced himself. He was prepared for anything that came at him. "You'll be our new Demon King." Anything except that…

The silence returned, but this time it was due to incomprehensible words. Alba stood dumbfounded, slouched, and utterly confused, "Huh?" What could he be talking about? Him? Demon King? It was ridiculous, he wasn't even a demon. Then again, Rchimedes wasn't a demon either. But still, suddenly declaring him Demon King was insane, but Elf was always weird. Besides, isn't Ruki still alive? She's already Demon King so they can't have another until she died or retired...and she was only 10.

Not reading the atmosphere at all, Elf struck a pose, "So what d'ya say, Alba? Come join us!" Hand outstretched, wink in place, a big grin, all completed with the glitter effect. Yep, he didn't understand the situation at all. Alba just continued to stand there trying to figure out what was happening. Being the logical one had its downsides and this was one of them.

Ross chuckled, and then gave Elf his famous dark smirk, "Like Hero would ever join you idiots. He's got us already."

"Didn't you just call yourself an idiot?" Alba deadpanned. He was right though, he was already surrounded by idiots, but they were his friends too and he'd never leave them. He took out this sword, the one Ross gave him as a gift (that he also stabbed him with) and took on a battle stance, "I won't join you guys, no matter what you do."

Elf sighed, but it wasn't in defeat, "Ya just gotta make it harder for us, don't ya?" He turned to Dezember, "Keep 'em busy. I'll be back." Dezember just scoffed. He didn't know what Elf was planning, no one ever did. He didn't even like the idea of putting Alba as the new Demon King. He'd much rather have Lord Lake take over, but Elf was in charge at the moment. Why? Because he was scared of the tanned guy's strength. Dezember was no match for him and they both knew that. So, he'd just have to suck it up and go along with everything.

Actually, now that Elf is gone, he doesn't need to listen to him anymore, which means he can get Lord Lake to be the new Demon King instead. "But how?"

Crap, was he thinking out loud? "Yes." Dammit! He should really stop doing that. "You should. It's creepy." Dezember threw his arms up. Okay, so they heard him and his plan, so what? He was still going to make Lord Lake the new Demon King. "But how?"

He looked at the little girl with the black cap. She had a good point, how was he going to accomplish that? The truth of the matter is…he had no idea. It just seemed like a good idea. Caught up in the stupid show before him, Alba nearly missed the large mana behind him. He quickly jumped away and brandished his sword at Elf. The tanned guy pouted, "Darn, so close too."

There was something in his hand, a small black orb that looked strangely familiar. Alba could feel the bad aura radiating from it. That little orb was powerful, but what was Elf trying to do with it? Alba gulped, "What...what were you trying to do?"

Elf just shrugged, "Oh, nothin' much. Just tryin' ta get this little thing inside ya." A black blur was suddenly on a course for his head, but Elf ducked before snickering, "Now, now, Shion-kun. Why ya so rowdy?"

Ross didn't answer him. Instead, he yelled at Alba, "Run!" The brunet didn't know what was going on or why Ross was suddenly so fearful, but he didn't listen to his command, "What are you talking about?! We can take this gu-"

"I said run, you idiot!" Alba froze. Ross was never like this. It was strange seeing that desperate look on his face. It wasn't just anger; there was actual fear and desperation in his usually sadistic red eyes. They were glaring at him now, but he still couldn't move. Elf chuckled darkly, "Shion-kun, ya'd better stay outta this."

Again, Ross ignored him, "Run, Alba!" That broke whatever stupor Alba was in. Ross never used his real name, mocking him by using 'Hero' or 'Rib Guy', but that one died off a long time ago. If Ross was actually using his name, it meant the situation was dire and Alba really needed to listen to him. As much as he didn't want to leave Ross and Crea to fight Elf without him, Elf was too strong, Ross was telling him to run. He tightened the grip on his sword, gritted his teeth and spun on his heel to turn and leave.

Dezember tried to block him, but Alba quickly slashed through his shadows and ran past the guy. He looked back at him feeling kind of sorry that the guy never seemed to catch a break. Still looking back, he didn't notice the black portal that opened up right in front of him. A tanned arm stretched out, but Alba turned back around just in time. He reeled back in surprise, effectively avoiding the hand with the orb again and sliding under the gate.

He stood back up and readied his sword as Elf stepped out of the portal. He got ready to charge at the tanned guy, but Ross blocked him and hissed, "Go!"

"But where?! He has Ruki's portal! It's impossible for me to run anywhere!"

"He's right, ya know?" Both their eyes widened; one in surprise, the other in horror. Everything was in slow motion for Ross: Alba's sudden jerk, him falling, and Elf's smirk appearing as Alba fell into Ross' arms. Ross stood completely frozen, Alba unconscious in his arms, as Elf swung his arm to release tension in it, "Phew, it took a while, but as they say, 'third time's the charm.'"

He stopped swinging his arm, all humor gone, "Now, give Alba-san here, Shion-kun." The dark glint in his eye caused Ross to twitch before he finally regained control of his body. He wrapped his arms around the brunet, pulling him closer, and glared defiantly at Elf. His smirk darkened, almost to the point where it would have made Ross' smirks look friendly, "There's no use holding on ta him. When he wakes up, he won't be the same Alba-san ya know anymore."

"What do you mean?" A groan made him look down. Ross loosened his hold to let Alba rub his tired eyes. Alba didn't give him one look when he walked out of his hold and past Elf. He just rubbed the back of his head and walked on, slouching all the way. Ross stood there, his reaction timing completely off today, as he watched Alba trot away.

Elf's eyes followed the brunet, "Well, ya woke up earlier than I thought." Alba stopped walking and turned his head to look at Elf. Could he even see? He had his eyes closed, but they were upturned, not like a sleeping face. Everyone waited, no one moved, seriously there were too many awkward silences today.

Alba let out a big yawn and scratched his head, still not opening his eyes. He slumped down even further, "I wanna go to sleep."

Ross was still paralyzed, but his mind was in turmoil. This wasn't Alba. But, it looked like him. It was definitely Alba's body, but this wasn't his soul. That black orb Elf had, that was Rchimedes' soul, he knew it was, but this wasn't Rchimedes either. Who is this new character? What happened to Alba?

"My work here is done. Dezember! The new Demon Lord is countin' on ya!" Not-Alba turned the other way to look at Dezember's sorry form on the ground immediately displeased. He was like one of those anime characters who never opened their eyes, but they could still see perfectly fine, "You mean this weird black thing?" He turned around again, but Elf was gone. Not-Alba scratched his head and hummed, "Mmm, well, I guess it'll hafta do."

To get to Dezember, Not-Alba had to walk past Ross. Even as he was doing that, hands in his pockets and totally nonchalant, the brunet didn't so much as even open his eyes let alone look at the raven. But when he walked by, Ross was engulfed in fear. This guy, for some reason, was really strong, scarily so that it even frightened the great Creashion into wanting to curl up in a corner and shiver in fear. The brunet stared down at Dezember before kicking him, "Oi, get up. You dead or something?" He gave a few more kicks before giving up.

He sighed and looked around, eyes still closed, finally noticing Ross. He smiled, "Hey, you look useful. Wanna help me out?" Alba stalked toward him. No, it wasn't Alba; he had to keep reminding himself that. But it looked so much like him; it was his body after all. But the expression, the posture, the way he spoke, it was all wrong. What happened to Alba? Hell, what happened to Rchimedes? Rchimedes was supposed to take over Alba's body like he had done to Crea, but how did this other guy show up? Maybe it wasn't Rchimedes' soul after all. No, Ross was sure that orb was Rchimedes' soul.

He could have dealt with Rchimedes again, he knew how to fight him this time, but he had no answers now. There was no way to tell if Alba's soul was still there, and that scared him. For the second time in his life, his heart wrenched with pain at the thought of losing another precious person. Both times were to the title of Demon King. Oh how he loathed that title, the name that started his life of misfortune and the rest that came after. He hated it, hated how it had stolen the only two people special to him away, hated how it had taken his father from him, hated how it had ruined his life completely.

He was sporting a scorching glare now as he watched Not-Alba calmly walk toward him. The brunet stopped about a foot away from where he was and grinned showing off long fangs that hadn't been there before, "That's a nice look on your face. It really suits you." He opened his eyes just a crack, but it was enough. The blood red eyes drove fear right through Ross' soul, it was that terrifying. The cross pupils confirmed it was Rchimedes' soul that was put into him. It probably would have been more intimidating if the brunet were taller, but Ross still had a good 2 inches on him.

They stared into each other's eyes, Ross wanting to flee but finding he was unable to. Soon, all that malicious aura was gone, replaced by Not-Alba's foxy grin, "So, you with me or what?"

They heard a groan and turned to see Dezember waking up. Wow, Ross didn't think the guy was that weak, but apparently he was. A few slashes of Hero's sword and he was down for the count. The shadow guy looked around before locking his eyes onto Not-Alba, "Where did Elf go? And you…" He paused, taking in Alba's posture and the funny look on his face and was completely un Alba-like before coming to a realization, "New Demon King-sama, is that you?" Not-Alba scratched the back of head, a habit they were all becoming aware of, "That's too long, just call me Timid."

"But that's a horrible name!"

"Hmm," Not-Alba wrapped his fingers around his chin. Dezember stared at him, "Can he really not think of a better name?"

Not a moment later, Not-Alba snapped his fingers, "I got it! Call me Maou." Dezember tested it, "Maou...sama…." He had to admit it didn't sound bad and it rolled of the tongue quite easily. Maou. The Japanese word for Demon King. Not a bad name at all. He shook his head furiously. What was he thinking? The only Demon Lord he would accept was the Demon Lord's son himself, Lord Lake and no one else, "I do not approve of this new Demon King."

Maou just continued to smile as he slowly drawn-out his next words, "Oh? Well then, I guess…" He was suddenly gone from Ross' side and next to Dezember in a flash, "...you have no place in my world." A slash sounded, and then a spray of blood, everyone could only watch as Dezember's body fell to the ground never getting up this time. Maou gave everyone a side glance and lifted his bloody hand up to his mouth. He licked up a thick drop of blood off the tip of his finger and grinned.

He suddenly crouched down and was shaking his head, "Bleh that was horrible! Ewewewewew!" He stuck his tongue out and continued shaking his head as he waved the blood soaked hand away from him. Salt was fearful at first, seeing how Ross reacted to the guy that wasn't Alba-san, but was stupefied at the odd antics of the new Demon King, "That's the new Demon Lord?"

"Well, he was scary for a while," Lake replied. Ruki looked up in thought, "If you think about it, grandpa had always been weird, so I guess we should have expected something like this to happen."

While they talked amongst themselves, Ross took the chance to get in a sneak attack. He landed a good kick that sent the brunet flying at least a couple meters drawing up dust as he skidded across the ground. He waited for the dust to clear, but he didn't need to. "Hey now, that wasn't very nice."

Ross' heart skipped a beat. He directed his eyes to his right finding Maou there completely unscathed. How is he not hurt? Ross felt his leg connect and yet the guy was right next to him grinning like a...a creeper...like the Cheshire Cat, yeah, that kind of grin. "You got spunk. I like you." Ross put some distance between them, "Crea, get everyone as far away as possible. I'll try to lead him away." Crea nodded and quickly got to work with a lot of protesting on the children's part.

Ross and Maou stared each other down as Crea got everyone to leave. Actually, Ross was doing all the staring, Maou was just standing there, hands in his pockets and smiling like an idiot with his eyes still closed. A bead of sweat ran down the side of Ross' face. What was he supposed to do? He didn't have a maker-kun; he stood no chance against this guy. That was another thing to take into consideration, how is he so powerful?

No, Alba had always been strong; he just didn't know how to use his mana. Rchimedes was also horrible at using his own mana, but he knew everything about it. Take that knowledge and combine it with Alba's quick learning and field smarts and you have an unstoppable monster on your hands. That monster was what he was glaring at right now and soon, he was going to be staring down its throat, the mouth of the beast he had willingly given his life to and had once been his friend.

He clenched his fists, his body shaking under all the pressure. No, he couldn't think like that, he wouldn't. He will get Alba back, at any means necessary. "Who's Alba?" Every organ in Ross' body froze before he began to shake anew. He dug his nails into his palms making his knuckles turn white as his red eyes blazed with rage.

He knew it was wrong and it would only be fuel for the maker-kun inside Alba's body, but he couldn't stop. He was so angry, so full of rage and anguish that he couldn't control it. He rushed at Maou and sent a punch at him, but the brunet simply leaned back to let the fist fly over his grinning face. He kept dodging Ross poor attempts to hit him, "What's wrong? All I asked was a simple question. Why are you so mad all of a sudden? Not that I don't enjoy it."

He snickered and that made Ross want to punch him all the more. He wanted to wipe that stupid expression off of Alba's face, it didn't belong there, and it shouldn't ever belong there. "C'mon, we don't have to fight. Just become my servant. We'll have fun, I promise."

Ross huffed. Hah, him, a servant? Never. Especially not to this guy. But he had to admit the guy was strong and knew a lot about battles. Taking him lightly could mean the end for Ross. He couldn't continue randomly punching; it was just going to deplete the mana he had left. He calmed himself, put a hand to his chest and took some deep breaths. All anger gone, he readied himself for another round.

Maou pouted, "What happened? Get angry again, you were better like that." Seeing Ross glare at him, Maou opened his eyes just a bit and smirked, "Oh well, you gave me more than enough mana to finish you off." He disappeared in a red blur and reappeared not a moment later right in front of Ross with that happy-go-lucky look back on his face. Now that he thought about it, it kind of looked like the expression Ruki's mom is always wearing.

He was prepared for some kind of attack, but he definitely was not expecting Maou to wrap both his arms around him and squeeze him into a bear hug. "Haha, but I won't ever do that. You're too cool." He let go and took the raven's hands in his own, "Come on, let's have fun together."

That look on his face… it was Alba. The Cheshire Cat grin was replaced with a smaller version, making the fangs less noticeable. He couldn't quite place it, but there was something different about him. It was too cute to say no to, in fact, Ross couldn't say anything to it. He was too flabbergasted to move his lips. He was just dragged along, mindlessly following Maou's lead with their hands linked. Maou came to a stop not a minute later and scratched the back of his head, "Now, how do I get to the Demon World?"

Ross blinked himself awake. This guy wasn't Alba; he had to drill that into his head. As much as he looked like the cute brunet, it wasn't him. He pulled his hand back and jumped away drawing Maou's attention. "Yo!"

They both looked to Maou's side to see the tanned guy in a weird train getup. Ross was less than amused. Maou looked down at the new arrival, "Oh, green guy, you're back."

The costume restricted all his limbs, only his face was visible to them, "I am not 'green guy', I am the super ultra awesome Chocotrain Express!"

"Choco? Like chocolate?" Maou tilted his head at the thought. "No! I'm a train!"

"Ahh! A stranger!" Maou kicked him away. Elf had some trouble getting back upright, since his stupid costume didn't have any holes for his limbs, and it was kind of funny watching him struggle. He finally had enough, "Arg! Enough of this!" He wiggled some more, but then stopped, "I can't get out."

Maou fell to the ground laughing as Ross stood there not knowing what to do. Elf tilted his head to try and find Maou, but he found Dezember's bloody body first, "Dezember? Oh, you got beat up again, didn't you? Ah, no matter." A gate opened underneath Dezember and his body fell through. "Anyway, it's time for us to go." Another opened underneath Elf and his body slipped in. Maou got up off the ground, "Hai, hai." He jumped up, higher than necessary, and fell through the gate before it closed.

And that was that, Alba was gone

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**His personality (and later on appearance) is from Haruhara's other character Timid from Gakumon. I had to change the personality a bit and since they never showed the eyes in Gakumon, I made them like Rchimedes' eyes. If you haven't seen Gakumon yet, I suggest you give it a try.**

**Edit 9/7/14: I realized that some of the things said in this chapter don't really make sense with the later ones. Why? Because I wrote this without any planning! I foreshadowed the new world Maou was going to shoot for before he even resolved to do it (this chapter has been changed to make this a little better) and his character didn't make any sense at all. I'm a logistic person who always questions how or why, so if what I wrote makes no sense to me I'm sure as hell going to change it. When he woke up, he should have had no memories of anything, and yet he went willingly with Elf like they already knew each other... -.-**

**I'm probably going to come back and rewrite this entire chapter. Thank you for reading my story and staying with me for my rambling. I'm very sorry and hope you have a nice rest of the day.**


	2. Ross and Noin, Thinking

**First off, I hate describing clothes (but I did it anyway). If you want an image, look up Timid from Gakumon. That's exactly how Alba will look for the next couple chapters only with his Demon Lord cape. I also apologize for my lack of facts in the first chapter. I mistook (my memory was foggy) Rchimedes' Future Sight magic for mind reading…oops. And the thing about Alba's red eyes, I know now that Rchimedes had contacts, but I'm still changing them.**

**VERY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY: Elf retrieved the maker-kun from Crea to put into Lake, but since Alba already has a maker-kun, Elf didn't need to do that. Therefore, none of the stuff with Salt ever happened and the maker-kun is still in Crea. Salt still awakened his mana, but never went missing because Elf didn't need him. Lake went with Ross and Crea because…he got lost? And I guess Salt and Lym went to go find him along with Foyfoy who chased after them. I didn't think this through…but that's irrelevant (totally contradictory)! **

**On with the story!**

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**Chapter 2: Ross and Noin, Thinking**

Ross dug his heel into the dirt ready to chase after them, but a hand was put to his shoulder to stop him. Crea was there, he had seen everything, "I know you want to go after them, but we have no clue where they went."

"I can just get Janua to find them."

Crea shook his head, "Even if you did, what would you do when you found them?"

He had a good point. There was nothing Ross could do at the moment. He could get Janua to locate Maou and then use Ruki's gate to get to them, but what then? He couldn't fight them, they were too strong. He let his arms drop; there was nothing he could do.

He felt a slap on his back, "Hey now, don't get all upset, Shii-tan! You'll figure something out eventually!" Ross sighed hoping his statement was true. At least Crea was back to normal, it was weird seeing him all serious and actually smart for once.

"Now, let's go join the other guys and party!" Ross blinked, "Party?"

"Ah, Cecily-san made everyone throw a party for Lake's return. Come on, let's go!" Ross sighed again. He doubted he could enjoy this party, but he might as well entertain them for a while until he figured out what to do.

* * *

Dezember watched as his new master dragged Noin and Juli around the carnival, "Why is there a carnival in the Demon World?" No one answered him, not like he was expecting it to be answered anyway. He followed the black and green blur that was the new Demon Lord as it came and went from stand to stand.

Having gotten to the Demon World, the first thing Maou did was change his appearance. He dyed his hair black and added dog ears, which he thought looked more like cat ears, switched his brown boots for black ones along with black capris. He even ripped off the sleeves of his prison wear and put a green short-sleeved jacket that was furred at the collar over it with a giant gold pull tab on the zipper. He was currently throwing balls at a stack of milk bottles.

Maou tossed a ball at the middle of the stack knocking over all the ones on top. Aiming for the lower row, he was surprised that they didn't deter, the ball just simply bounced off. He pointed at the bottles, "Hey, I totally hit those."

The guy at the counter, who did not have any features drawn on him at all, just shrugged, "Sorry, kid. You get one more try."

Juli and Noin backed away. At first glance, even when Maou still looked like Alba, they knew he was not one to be messed with. Maou was given another ball. He aimed it again, but this time he infused it with mana. Instead of knocking the bottles over, it went straight through the first two and cracked the two next to them before shooting out the other side of the booth, "Eh? They still didn't fall?"

"Nice try, kid, but no one can beat this game!" He said it like he was proud. He wasn't trying to hide the fact that it was rigged at all. Maou stood there for a while thinking, an ominous air surrounding him, "That so?"

He raised a finger and above the tip appeared a little red sphere, "This game is boring." The sphere dropped from his finger and Maou transported all of them to the outskirts of the carnival using the gate before the little red ball even touched the floor. Just as their feet hit the ground, the earth trembled beneath them as the bright glow of fire exploded behind them.

They all looked back, except for Maou, only to find a charred crater where the carnival once stood. Maou sighed, bringing the attention back on himself, "What a bore. Come on, let's go find someplace else." He started walking away with Juli and Noin staring at his back, "So cool!" They ran to catch up with their new idol leaving Dezember behind to wonder what in the world just happened. He turned to look at the burnt ruins again and mumbled, "With all that noise it's a wonder why the 2nd Demon Lord isn't already here."

Maou's dog ears twitched like they were actually real. Off to the side, Juli stared at the things on the once brunet's head, "Did those things just move?" Noin also stared in wonder waiting for them to move again, "I think they did, but aren't those fake?"

Maou tilted his head, "'Demon Lord'? I thought I was the Demon Lord."

"Ah, yes, but, there's still the 2nd who was here before you…"

Maou hummed, "If there's a Demon Lord then there also has to be a castle, right? Let's go to the castle! Castles are fun!" He raised his arms and started walking. Juli and Noin followed him while Dezember trudged behind.

Oddly enough, Dezember didn't even need to show them the way. They arrived at the castle without any trouble whatsoever. He had to wonder how Maou knew where the castle was since this was his first time in the Demon World since being fused.

Maou stopped in front of the enormous structure in awe, "So this is the Demon Lord's castle? Wow, this place looks great! Let's go!"

"You can't just waltz in like that!" Despite Dezember's protests, Maou barged into the castle without a care in the world. Just as its exterior, the inside was also very large. A long hallway greeted them when they opened the door. The creaking noise from the door bounced off the walls in the silence magnifying it tenfold to sound more like the growl of an ugly monster.

Maou strolled past the many doors lining the hall. It was like he knew where he was going despite never being there. He opened what seemed like a random door. It was just as classy as the rest of the castle, but behind the door is what shocked them. There, behind the door, was the Demon Lord and his wife eating dinner.

"Alba-kun?" The 2nd Rchimedes looked up from his food. The brunet looked different from when he last saw him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "... Did you get a haircut?"

"That's the only thing that hasn't changed!" Dezember's outburst went ignored. The 2nd knew something was different about Alba and it definitely (possibly) was not (could be) his hairstyle. A powerful aura was radiating from him. It was so strong and foul, how did he not notice it before? Alba had always been powerful, especially after he acquired mana, but this was at least 10x that power. And the people that came in with him, they were followers of the 1st Rchimedes. He couldn't make any sense of this scene, so he just gave up.

Maou ignored the 2nd's staring. He seemed to be preoccupied with the Demon Lord's cloak, but who could tell with his eyes closed like that? "I like your cloak. Can I have one?"

The 2nd got up with a blush, all suspicions gone, "Sure!" (It's not everyday someone compliments him on his sense of style), "Actually, I still have the one Honey gave you. Let's go get it."

"But, dear, you haven't finished your dinner."

"Alba-kun wants his cloak. It's not every day we get to see him after all."

"Yes, but you haven't finished your dinner."

"But Alba-kun is here."

"...But you haven't finished your dinner…."

There was a short pause before the 2nd conceded, "Alright, we'll go after we finish dinner." Honey just smiled. And so, all of them began eating the wonderful food that Honey made, all except Dezember who had no idea what was going on anymore. He walked over to Maou, "Demon Lord-sama, is it really a good idea to be eating so casually beside your enemy?"

The 2nd was shocked, "'Demon Lord-sama'?" He slammed his hands on the table and stood up, "Alba-kun is not a demon! How dare you accuse him of such treachery?!"

"But you're a demon!" Dezember put a hand to his head tired of all the outbursts he was making recently. He never needed to do this much when the 1st was with them. Then again, all Dezember did was get in his way and cheer on the side lines. Oh, how he wished to be of more use to his great Demon Lord. Wait a second… if the 1st Rchimedes' soul is within Alba… Dezember took a quick glance at Maou. That would mean he could still be of use to him! Forget Lake-sama, even if the kid was blood related he wasn't the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord now was Maou-sama, and Dezember would do everything in his power to help him this time.

While this was all going on in his head, Dezember's physical body portrayed much of his inner thoughts. The spectators that were still eating dinner found amusement and confusion in his odd actions, but didn't try to stop him because he seemed really happy.

* * *

Back in the human world at the small-town party, Ross was chewing on a kebab when he heard Tsukkomi shouts (*). Looking around, he saw Salt talking to a man in a tan coat. Figures it'd be Salt. What was he expecting? Alba wasn't with them anymore, so the only Tsukkomi characters left were Salt and Lym. Speaking of Alba, that man in the coat looked a little like the hero.

"I'm telling you, Sir, you really need to get that wound treated!" The man just laughed, "I already told you, I'm a doctor, so I bandaged it myself." He pulled up his shirt to show the kid.

"A stick is not needed for a stomach wound!" Salt sighed. Surely not all old people were like this guy. If they were, Salt would go insane before he even got to their age. "Hey."

Ross came up behind Salt, "Ross-san! What happened to Alba-san?" The hero's name piqued the man's interest, "Alba?"

"So you know him?" The man was unintimidated by Ross' glare. Salt was dragged away by Cecily against his will leaving the two adults. He also wanted to know about this strange man and how he survived past childhood. After a minute of simple staring, the man smiled and tipped his hat to hide his eyes, "I never imagined my little boy would become a hero. Actually, it's quite befitting of him."

"What do you mean? And who are you?" The man laughed, "He'd always try to save someone and be the leader or just help people with their problems. Actually, he was kidnapped when he was helping a shady guy with a box." Normally, if Alba were here, he'd have some kind of outburst. But Ross was alone now and he didn't know how to deal with someone like this guy. So, he just stared and listened unable to come up with a single retort.

"He came back three days later all tuckered out an' such. Poor kid. His momma was all worried too, but I knew he'd come runnin' on back in no time!" He was suddenly speaking like a Westerner. Ross could do nothing but stare. How would Alba deal with this?

The man crossed his arms and nodded his head, "He could escape from the most ruthless of criminals. He was truly a hero at heart." Weren't heroes supposed to defeat the criminals? This man was indeed odd; perhaps he was Alba's boke in the past, that is, if Alba possessed his Tsukkomi traits back then.

"Well, I must be off. It was nice talking to you, uhm…"

"Call me Ross."

"Well then, Ross-kun, I'm Midnight Frühling. I bid you farewell." Right as he left, Ross realized he still didn't know what the man's connection to Alba was. From their conversation, he knew Alba very well and must be a close family friend or something of the sort.

A gate appearing beside him didn't let him think more on it. Out of the gate popped the 2nd Rchimedes and his wife, "Creashion-san! I have terrible news!"

"What happened?"

"Alba-kun took over my castle!" Maou is in the Demon World? How idiotic of him. Ross should have known the castle in the Demon World would have been his first stop. There can't be two Demon Kings after all.

Now that he knew where Maou was, Ross just needed a plan of attack, "Can you tell me anything about how Maou fights? Does he have any weaknesses from what you saw?"

The 2nd blinked, "'Maou'?" It would seem that despite having met the guy, he did not know Alba had become the new Demon Lord. Ross sighed, he picked this guy to be Demon King for his moralities and skill in battle, he didn't expect him to be smart, but he couldn't possibly be that dumb. "Didn't Alba seem strange to you?"

"Now that you mention it, there was something off about him. I thought it was his new haircut, but later on I figured that certainly wasn't it. It was too hard, so I gave up." He needed to say something, anything, but Ross couldn't find any words. Reprimanding sounded nice, but how to go about it… Where was a Tsukkomi when you needed one?

"Oh, dear, don't be silly. That wasn't Alba-san, or at least not completely."

Honey stood next to her husband with her ever cheerful smile that looked eerily similar to Maou's, though, in a more comforting way. "'Not completely'? So you can sense souls?"

"Not exactly. I only know that because I've touched Alba-san's soul before. It was when he was in the Dimensional Rift where I gave him maker-kun."

The soul, Alba's soul was still there. "Could you sense another soul in him?"

Honey pursed her lips, "Hmm, it was faint, but I do recall getting the feeling of another person with us. It was very strange though, I didn't think I could sense souls at all."

Interesting… So Alba's soul is still existent and Rchimedes is there as well, but why didn't Rchimedes take over yet, is the question. "Anyway, what can you tell me about Maou's fighting style?"

"Oh, we didn't fight him." Ross' silent indifferent glare urged the 2nd to what his wife started. The 2nd fidgeted under the raven's disapproving gaze, "He came in during dinner and we ended up eating together. After that, he told me to leave the castle. Since he said it so nicely I had to leave."

"...In other words, you were scared." The 2nd was down on his knees with a dark cloud palpable above his head.

How pathetic. So Maou was strong enough to scare even the 2nd from a fight. Ignoring the 2nd's depression, Ross gritted his teeth as he tried to think of something that could possibly help him. The blue glow of the dancing mana atop the 2nd's head captured his eyes.

That's right, before anything, Ross would need more power if he wanted to even attempt battling Maou. But, if he made another maker-kun now, he'd have to wander around looking for anger and hatred to power it. That would take too much time, time that he did not have. There was also the problem of getting the necessary ingredients to make another maker-kun.

Ross' eyes widened in horror. If Maou had Rchimedes' soul within him, could that mean Rchimede's memories are also…

He glowered at the 2nd with terrifying eyes out of fear and anxiety, "Take me to the castle."

"Eh? Creashion-san?"

"Hold up!"

Crea stood in front of Ross with a defiant glare, "I told you already. Even if you know where he is, what can you do? Calm down and think this through."

"There's no time to think! If Maou's memories of Rchimedes surface—"

"What proof do you have that they will?" Ross stopped. "The way he fought," he said after a while, "He was definitely competent at using magic. Alba had the strength, but didn't know how to use it. Rchimedes was too idiotic to use it right, but he knew everything about it. His moves when we fought, they clearly showed mastery of magic."

By then, everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen to the conversation. It was certainly more entertaining than that egg magic guy.

Crea hummed, "Well, that is true. His fighting style didn't look like Alba's after all…." He ran his hand through his hair, "Man, I can never argue with you. If you think it's right, go for it, but I'm going with you."

"Me too! I wanna go see the Demon Lord's castle!" Lake pushed past all the bodies in front of him and stumbled toward the two older boys. Salt made it through the crowd right behind Lake. Since Lake was an idiot, he took it upon himself to look after the kid despite them being the same age…and he also wanted to see the castle.

"And I want to save Alba-san!" Ross stared at his supposed older brother, dragging the silence unnecessarily long, "No way."

"Awww but why?!" The cool façade Lake commanded crumbled at his brother's words, "I want to save Alba-san just as much as you do!"

"No. You're not coming and that's final."

"I'm supposed to be the big brother! You can't tell me what to do—" Poor Lake was cut off by his mom, "No! My sweet Lake is never leaving me again!" She nuzzled Lake's cheek affectionately with her own as he struggled in her hold, "Shion can't leave me either!"

Ross stood unaffected by the terrifying face his mother was making. "Mom…" The word felt foreign on his tongue. After living his whole life without a mother, he couldn't picture one now even if she was kneeling right before him. Her expression softened to a pointed glare. "I'm an adult; you don't need to worry about me."

The soft smile he gave her made Cecily tear up and hug Lake even tighter making his head swell up like a balloon. A hand patted Ross' shoulder, making him turn his head to see Crea beaming at him, "That's right! I totally forgot! It doesn't feel like it, but we're over 20 years old aren't we!"

"It doesn't feel like it because you still act like you're 12."

"How mean!" Crea crouched down off to the side teary eyed as he waited for Ross to finish talking to his mother. Seeing as Cecily was busy crying and hugging Lake for dear life, Ross took his leave.

Some part of him liked the idea of having a mother; someone there to hold you, to support you, to love you. He always wondered what it felt like to have a mother; an actual parent that didn't spend all their time in their room doing some crazy experiment that was bound to fail like all the previous attempts. Crea didn't have any parents, so Ross never brought it up, but he still wondered. It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with his life, no, he was actually pretty happy. Even if he didn't have a mom while growing up, he was content with his life. If only Rchimedes saw that, maybe he wouldn't have done what he did.

Ross shook his head. If Rchimedes hadn't found mana and made him go on that hellish journey, they never would have been sealed together for 1000 years. If Ross' life had gone normally, he would have never met his precious person.

First it was Crea. It may have taken over 1000 years, but he was finally able to free him from Rchimedes. Now, 1000 years later, Ross needed to do it again.

_Wait for me, Alba. I'll get you back._

* * *

"Wow, so this is the Hero Academy." A shady trio strolled down the first floor hallway of the new hero school. The one in the middle stopped, "I have a great idea! I'll make a demon school!"

"That's a wonderful idea, Demon Lord-sama!"

The middle one stopping was a given sign for the other two to stop. "But what would we learn?" questioned the smallest one in a bear hat.

"We could have classes like Magic 101, and Naming Moves 101, and Being Cool 101."

"Why do they all have 101 at the end? And don't some of these classes sound pointless?"

"You need to have 101 at the end of a class name otherwise it isn't a class. It's common knowledge." His two companions cheered for the idea. They talked amongst themselves in the middle of the hallway unaware of their audience.

Sochi leaned into her chair and threw an arm over the back. Why were they in the classroom without a teacher? Hell, why were they still in school? Plus, there were only three people. A class with three people and no teacher wasn't a class at all. Being a school for heroes, you'd expect it to be packed with cool people. But no, it was filled with random people that the king thought 'looked the part' or applied of their own free will. They were separated into three different years based on age, but in reality they were all first-years.

Whatever, it didn't change the fact that she was bored. Her two brothers were talking about something, but she wasn't paying any attention. The brunet tilted her head to stare out the window, only, instead of an empty hallway, there were three weird guys being all happy. "Who are they?"

Van and Couver stopped talking when they heard her finally say something. She hadn't said a word the entire conversation. It didn't seem to be directed at them, like she was merely saying it to get it out, but they looked into the hallway anyway.

All three of them simply watched the other trio in the hall for a good minute or two before Van spoke, "Hey, doesn't that guy look like the Legendary Hero Alba-san?" The other two scrutinized the raven in the middle.

"No way," Sochi waved her hand, "That guy is too cheerful and happy. Alba-san was all dark and cool. Plus he was wearing his favorite prison suit and he isn't allowed to leave the cave, remember?"

"Yeah, but that guy is also wearing prison stripes." Couver pointed to the raven's shirt just barely visible from his green jacket.

"That's proof that it's Alba the Hero!" Van yelled getting everyone's attention, "Everyone! Alba the Hero is in the hall!"

"…Who are you yelling at? There's no one here."

"Ah…I forgot."

It may have been on deaf ears in the room, but the ones outside sure heard his call. The demon trio stopped their planning and looked into the classroom they didn't realize they stopped by. Seeing three children, Maou's happy mood went up another level, "Kids! There are kids in there! Mini heroes!"

He smashed through the windows and landed on a desk. He crouched down and smiled cheerfully at the freaked out children, "Hey, do you…" A sudden cold chill swept through the area as Maou cracked open a blood red eye, "…wanna try dying?"

The sudden change in attitude and his wicked grin paralyzed the poor heroes-in-training. Their legs wouldn't move nor could they turn away. It was like that one eye of his that they could see had complete control over their bodies rendering them helpless like a lamb staring into the throat of a tiger. The only thing they could think about was the overpowering urge to run. Every part of their being screeched at them to flee, as far away as possible and never to look back, but they were unable to.

Just as they thought it was the end for them, a rumbling from the floor above distracted Maou. The rumbling continued over their heads and then down to their floor before they heard someone yell, "Hey! Who are you?!"

The two demons still in the hall turned to face the new arrival; a scary-looking guy that seemed like the type to be very loud. "Hero Academy Second-Year! I'm Douki Bakugenki!"

Another guy walked out from behind him, "Seia Ryuusei," was all he said.

Maou popped his head out from the broken window all cheery again, "Hi! My name is Maou, the new Demon Lord, and I've come to kill everyone here!" He said going along with the sudden introductions. Maybe announcing their plan was a bit much…nah, it was pretty obvious. After all, what else would a Demon Lord be doing in a school for heroes?

"Not while we're here! Come on, Seia! Let's send these guys flying!"

Dezember took a stance, "I will not let you lay a finger on Demon Lord-sama."

"Wait, Dezember." Dezember glanced over his shoulder. Maou slipped through the window landing gracefully on his feet as his new cape flowed with his body, "I'll handle these guys. You take care of those kids and anyone else in this building. Noin will stay with me."

"But, Demon Lord-sama."

"I trust you, Dezember. That's why I'm giving you full control over this mission. Besides, this guy is interesting." Maou focused on Douki with a glint in his eyes. Dezember wanted to cry for joy. His precious Demon Lord trusted him enough to give him the important task of annihilating all the hero candidates even after Dezember was so opposed to him at first. Demon Lord-sama forgave him and even trusted him with this major mission. Oh happy days! "I will not fail you, Demon Lord-sama!"

Maou nodded as Dezember jumped into the classroom. "Oh no you don't!" Douki charged after Dezember, "Out of the way!" He brought a fist down at Maou who caught it easily with one hand.

Douki pulled his arm away and held his fist in his other hand. That guy was strong; his hand hurt from Maou's grip. "Careful, Douki, that guy is strong."

Yeah, he got that from the short contact he had with the guy. He felt a hand put on his shoulder, "Douki, we need to get to a more open space."

"But that black guy—!"

"We need to focus on the guy in front of us. He says he's the new Demon Lord and there's no doubt he's incredibly powerful." He said it like he couldn't care less, he was always like that, but the little squeeze Seia gave to Douki's shoulder told him his companion was just as tense as he was. In truth, Seia didn't care about the Demon Lord, but Douki was worried and as long as the demon was at the school, Seia was as well. Now, how to get him out of the school…

"Hey! Can we fight somewhere else?!" If his eyes were open, Maou probably would have blinked, "Hm? Sure."

Well, that was easier than he thought.

"Alright. Exit's that way." Seia pointed behind Maou who immediately turned around and started walking. He turned his back just like that? He wasn't concerned about his enemies one bit; didn't even think of them as a threat. Seia felt a bead of sweat run down his cheek. What were they getting themselves into?

As they were walking, Douki whispered to Seia, "Hey, doesn't that guy remind you of someone?" Seia scanned Maou's back. Now that he mentioned it, the new Demon Lord did remind him of a certain brunet they helped out a while ago. That couldn't be possible though, the brunet would never have become the Demon Lord. Plus, this guy was completely different; the only thing the two had in common was their hair style.

Seia didn't need to say anything for Douki to understand. They had been partners for a long time; it wasn't hard to tell what the other was thinking. There was no confirmation that it was really the little brunet they knew, and considering the circumstance it was too risky to ask.

They walked in silence until they reached the school exit. Once they stepped out, Maou stopped. The two ravens behind him also stopped. They tensed, prepared for any sudden move he would make.

Maou raised his hand. Douki and Seia bent their knees staring intently as a black hole formed in front of him. He turned around and smiled at them, "Okay, we'll take this gate to some place farther away. Normally you'd need a suit to go through without injury, but I can tell you guys aren't human."

Maou didn't wait for a response. He jumped into the portal, but Noin stayed behind. "If he wanted to go somewhere farther, why didn't he just open a portal in the school instead of walking with us?"

"…To be polite?" Seia frowned at that. He couldn't believe the Demon Lord would be polite to anyone. Maybe the 2nd and his family, but definitely not the 1st. That guy wanted to kill everyone; the same was the case with the guy that just went through the portal. He couldn't make any sense of it.

"Well? What are you guys waiting for? Don't even think about chickening out now. Maou-sama is waiting."

The two stared at the little demon questionably, "Who are you?"

"Ack! They have no respect! I'm one of the 12 great demons of the Demon World and loyal servant to Maou-sama! Be terrified!"

"We don't need to be scared of a servant." Noin grinded his teeth. Damn these jerks; they were totally looking down on him, "Never mind! Just get going already!"

The two shared a look before stepping through the gate with Noin jumping in soon after. The first thing they noticed was the sudden change in atmospheric pressure; one that they were well acquainted with. The place they came to was barren and devoid of any life. It was just dirt and rock as far as the eye could see.

"Seia…"

"Yeah," Seia scanned the area, "We're in the Demon World."

"Welcome!" Maou stood a few feet away from them with that annoying smile still on his face. Noin trotted back to his side. "Ne, Noin, what do you think of that loud one?"

"Hm? Well, he's better than that other one." Maou hummed, "How about we test him out?"

"Wha—" Douki couldn't even get out one word before Maou was in his face. A swift kick to the stomach sent him flying. Maou grinned, "Interesting."

Seia readied a punch at the back of Maou's head, but the dog-eared demon disappeared in a blur causing the punch to go through thin air. Maou appeared by Noin again, "Noin, get back."

"Y-yes, sir!" As much as he wanted to fight, he didn't have any puppets at his disposal, so it was best not to get in Maou's way for now. Then a thought came to him: there was nowhere to hide. This place was just a barren wasteland; where the hell could he go? Oh well, he just ran a couple yards until he thought he was at a safe distance. Besides, the two non-humans had all their attention on Maou, so Noin was safe for the time being. Man, Juli was sure missing out. Too bad Maou made him stay at the castle.

Seia forced Maou onto the defensive; although, it looked more like Maou was having fun. No matter how hard he tried, Seia couldn't land a single hit on the guy. It was like he was dancing right through his fingers, or fists in this case. He didn't stop though, he couldn't, he just had to hold out for a few more seconds.

A battle cry rang out behind the Demon Lord. Douki jumped into the air bringing his fist down only to smash it into the ground causing a crater to form in the dried up earth. The sudden disappearance of his opponent brought Seia's barrage of futile punches to a stop. Once again, Maou slipped right past him and escaped harm. He thought they had him with that plan, but he should have expected as much from the Demon Lord. This wasn't just any opponent they were dealing with.

"Don't think you can get rid of me that easily!"

Maou smirked, "I knew you'd be back. You blocked that kick just in time. You reflexes are amazing."

"Don't think you can win me over with praises either!"

"'Win you over'? Oh, no no no, I want to have fun with this before you become our puppet."

Douki had only a second to wonder what he meant. "Douki, Formation B."

"Roger!" The two split in different directions. They circled around Maou as he looked back and forth between them glittery and impressed, "'Formation B'. I like the sound of that."

Douki dove at Maou's heels successfully kicking him off balance. Seia leaped into the air high above them, the sun making his body a tiny speck against it. He pulled his arm back diving headfirst toward the unprepared Maou…or so he thought.

Maou pulled his arms out from under his cloak and brought them up to bring himself over in a back arc. He caught Seia as he came down and kicked him away before pushing off the ground with his hands to land on his feet.

Seia flipped in the air to keep from having a bad fall on his head. Formation B didn't work, just like he thought, but they did manage to hit him once. They'd need something craftier if they wanted to win.

"Douki, let's try Operation 257."

"What?! But we haven't tested it yet!"

"Then let's start now." Seia bolted away leaving the scene. Maou tilted his head, "Did he just run away?" He sidestepped to avoid being hit by a fist that flew by, "Don't be so cocky! You still have an opponent!" Douki sent a barrage of punches at Maou just as Seia had done earlier. And just like earlier, Maou wasn't even trying to fight back.

Maou leaned back to dodge a punch to the face, but another fist came at him from the side. The first one was a diversion to keep his attention and get him in place for the other one to hit. In all the fun he was having, this one tactic actually caught him off guard. There wasn't any time to fully dodge the hit, so he brought his arms up to block it. Even so, the force of the punch sent him back.

As he was in the air, he noticed the faint presence of mana coming toward them, very quickly might he add. Before he realized it, the ground that was once a few inches from him was suddenly a couple yards. The new elevation was accompanied by a little tingle in his back. Could he have been hit? But when did it happen?

The loud guy was suddenly in his face again with another punch. Maou blocked it again, but it made him fly back the other way. The guy wasn't very fast, but he was strong. Maou readied himself for landing, but his feet never made contact with the ground. Once again, he was flying through the air with a new tingle in his back.

He was hit again, but by whom? Why was he not able to see them? Maou focused on the invisible one, but while he was trying to pinpoint his location, Douki smacked him away again. He tried again, but the same thing happened. He couldn't find the invisible guy if they kept hitting him.

Douki pulled his fist back as Maou came at him again, but Maou had had enough. He punched Douki into the ground finally getting this ridiculous cycle to stop and immediately turned on his heel to give the other guy an uppercut, but he didn't stop there. He chased Seia up into the air and sent him away with a powerful kick to the gut.

Seia landed painfully creating a crater and tumbling a few times before coming to a stop. He pushed himself up, but fell back down when a sharp pain made itself known when he put force onto his arm. That fall did a number on him. The scratches and bruises alone were enough, but now he had a broken arm. He should have been prepared; no way was the Demon Lord going to fall for a cheap trick like that. "For the second time I underestimated you, but I won't do it again."

"If he did it twice already, you can expect he'd do it again."

Seia whipped his head around. It was that little guy in the bear suit not a foot away from him. With all his attention on Maou, he'd forgotten about this guy… Who was this guy again?

Earlier he said he was a servant of the Demon Lord's, which meant he was also a demon. That would mean he was strong, so why wasn't he fighting? Wait, when they started fighting, Maou said something to him and then he ran away. Did that mean he was scared of his master? No, he spoke highly of him before they went through the portal. Maybe…

Seia grabbed Noin by his neck with his uninjured arm. "Let go of me!"

All he was doing was struggling in his grip. Seia was right, this guy can't protect himself, so he ran away to stay out of the fight. He could use this to his advantage.

The sudden spike in bloodlust caused his heart to stop. The killing intent in the air, there was so much of it that Seia couldn't stop shivering. "Hey…"

The terrified raven shakily turned his head. Suddenly, his vision was dominated by red, a horrible crimson that promised absolute damnation. "Let. Him. Go."

He was sweating so much he felt like his face was going to melt. Even if he told him to let go, Seia's body was too busy trembling to move properly. Never in his two lives had he ever felt this way before; it was utterly horrifying, that feeling of helplessness with the utmost certainty that you were going to die in less than 3 seconds, utterly horrifying especially if you still wanted to do something in your life.

The little bit of movement behind Maou caught his eye. He was able to move just long enough to shout "Don't do it, Douki!" but it was too late.

Douki tried to sock him from behind, but Maou tilted his head to the side. The king craned his neck, "You're becoming a nuisance." For the first time, Maou's eyes were fully open, the cross pupils of his eyes hidden by the blazing flames of rage.

He grabbed Douki's head and smashed his skull into the eroding rock underneath them breaking the earth and probably bone as well. In a nanosecond he was next to Seia with a fist in the raven's face releasing his hold on Noin and sending him flying. Maybe later Maou would look back and laugh at how easy it was to beat them, but he wasn't in the mood right now.

"M-Maou-sama…?"

"Are you alright?" Noin was taken aback. Maou was worried about him? He got angry because he was in danger? That…that…that kind of pissed him off actually, but he was still grateful. If it were anyone else, Noin would have brushed it off. But this was Maou, the Demon Lord, him worrying about his subordinate, it was an honor. Plus, the way he beat them up was so cool! Noin's respect just went up 10 levels. This guy was way better than the lousy 1st, he couldn't even compare to the 4th and his glory.

"MAOU-SAMA! THERE'S A PROBLEM AT THE CASTLE! YOU NEED TO COME BACK NOW!"

Noin shivered. Nononono, Juli! Now was not the time! Maou was already in a bad mood! The brief display of concern was all but gone. As Noin had suspected, Maou's anger had not vanished yet.

"Noin." Said boy jumped. "Do what you want with these guys, I'll pick you up later."

"H-hai! Maou-sama!" The one thought going through Noin's mind at the moment didn't have anything to do with puppets:

_I feel sorry for whoever's at the castle right now. No matter who it is, they're going to die._

* * *

**OMAKE**

Seia glared at the flight of stair in front of him with Douki by his side. Douki tilted his head, "So? What will we do?"

Seia pondered the question before responding, "Operation 785."

"Yes, sir!"

(No, actually this is something I just came up with that will probably never be used again. It's not canon.)

* * *

**Tsukkomi: The "straight-man" in a comedy duo a.k.a the sane one.**

**Boke or Boké: The idiot in a comedy duo.**

**Douki Bakugenki=reincarnation of Grandpa (the one who showed Ross' past to Alba)**

**Seia Ryuusei=reincarnation of Hasegawara Ryuusei (the cow in love with Janua)**

**I was debating whether to split the chapter since it seemed like it was really long. I'm not sure if people like longer chapters or shorter ones. I really couldn't think of a good name for this chapter, so it might change a few times.**


	3. Maou, Resolve

**This chapter contains events that make little to no sense with the first chapter, so please do not think too much about it (like me) and just continue reading. I will probably go back and rewrite the first chapter if you didn't read the A/N at the end. Thank you for your time.**

**Remember how I said the stuff with Salt never happened? I meant the stuff that Elf did to Salt never happened, so Salt still awakened his mana after Alba messed up his demonstration. However, it won't be mentioned in this chapter because this is going a lot slower than I originally planned... **

* * *

**Chapter 3: Maou, Resolve.**

Footsteps echoed in the spacious halls of the empty castle with crunches disturbing their rhythmic pattern every few moments. Juli popped another chip into his mouth munching it as he thought. Being left behind totally sucked; he didn't get any action. Even at the time Dezember was giving orders all Juli did was sit at base reading whatever all day. He understood that Noin needed to go so that he could get more puppets and Dezember had a weird change of heart that caused him to act like the 4th was the 1st. What a weird guy.

Still, he wanted to go with them. All that was at the castle was long hallways and silence. Juli walked onto the castle balcony just to see another older blond laughing suspiciously. Oh, there was Juni, too, but no one liked him… barely anyone knew who he was anyway. Not wanting to be around the creepy older blond, Juli silently crept back the way he came. When he was out of earshot, he took another chip and munched on it. It was bad enough that they left him out of the fun, but they just had to leave Juni with him.

For some reason, after they kicked out the 2nd, the old geezer came to the castle laughing about how he was the new Demon Lord. One look at Maou shut him up fast. He wondered why the guy was still at the castle and why Maou let him stay. If it were him, he'd send the old bastard flying or maybe rip him to shreds. The latter sounded more appealing. But, he could be of some use.

What can he do in a castle all by himself? He supposed he could go exploring. It was a big castle, but it was surprisingly easy to navigate through. As he walked down another hallway, a loud bang sounded from somewhere close. Juli opened the door he thought the sound came from. Instead of a big room, there was a staircase leading down covered in shadows so that the end was unclear. It felt like one of those horror movie scenes where you're screaming at the characters to not go down but they do it anyway.

Juli made a face, now that was a stupid thought; he wasn't one of those dumb human idiots. Pretending he wasn't even mildly scared, he strode down the steps with his head held high.

"Oi, Crea. Don't go making a mess."

"Aww, you're no fun, Shii-tan."

"You already broke a vial and now it smells bad. Can't you stay still for 2 minutes?"

"The smell is practically gone now…. Fine, I'll be quiet."

Juli peeked from the side of the wall. He grinned; it would seem that they had intruders. Maybe he could have some fun after all. He transformed his arm and shot it at the two in the room below crushing a table and sending bottles and paper flying. He propelled himself across the room landing in the middle and shot them a malevolent grin, "What do you guys think you're doing here?"

A black blur popped out and stood in front of him, "Creashion-san! Do what you need to do; I'll take care of him."

"Hm? What are you doing back here? Maou-sama kicked you out."

Rchimedes II bent his body ready to attack, "I may have been scared at the time, but not anymore."

Juli brought both his mutant arms up in an intimidation attempt, "You guys are nothing to Maou-sama. So what if he isn't here, I'm more than enough to take you guys on." His arms crashed down destroying the room even more. Given the small spacing, a few more attacks like that and the room would be annihilated. "Rchimedes! Take the fight elsewhere! We can't let him destroy the room!"

"Understood!" Juli jumped at him with his arms behind him. If Rchimedes II was going to get him somewhere else, it would be now or never. He opened a gate and, with Juli's arms behind him, he went through without a problem. Just as Rchimedes II readied himself to follow, Crea stopped him, "You sure you can handle him?"

Rchimedes II gave him a thumbs up, "Leave it to me!" To Crea, this looked really cool; to Ross, he couldn't understand why the guy was even trying to be cool.

Juli looked around. He couldn't believe he fell for something that simple. He wasn't sent anywhere far; the castle was just a few meters away. Did the 2nd miscalculate? Speaking of that guy, Juli gave him exactly 0.5 seconds to dodge his incoming attack when Rchimedes II came out the gate.

Rchimedes II managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but one of Juli's claws scratched just under his eye. He wiped away the blood running down his pale cheek. He's never seen the blond before, so he doesn't know his capabilities, but he landed a hit, so he must be somewhat strong. It looked like his magic was transforming his body parts to those of a monster's increasing strength and speed with it. If that was all, Rchimedes II could easily defeat him with the gate. No, he couldn't underestimate the enemy, underestimating the enemy meant you were no better than a slime.

Somewhere far, far away from the battle, Seia sat up. He looked up at the sky and just stared, "Somewhere...I feel like I have just been insulted." A knock to the head sent him back to dream world.

We come back to the fearsome battle. It's Rchimedes II vs. Juli…no, seriously, it's intense.

The surrounding land was cracked and crushed. It was a wonder how the castle wasn't caught up in the mass destruction. Juli's full-body transformation wreaked havoc on the already broken earth trying to catch the slippery Rchimedes II. Where Juli's full transformation gave him power and size, it lacked the speed it had when it was only partial transformation. He was thinking, since all his attacks weren't doing anything if they weren't hitting him, maybe he should revert back to the partial transformation.

On the ground, Rchimedes II was thinking about what he should do about the situation. As it was now, he was only running. He could try to put in a counter attack but… He ducked into another gate to avoid a huge green claw. He popped his head out to take a quick scan of the area. That big green monster wasn't just for show. In truth, he didn't think he could stand up to that gigantic behemoth even with his enormous physical strength, besides… he was scared. Well, at least he was keeping him occupied for Ross to do whatever it was he was doing.

Rchimedes II dodged another claw, but the very tip was cut off when he closed the gate. It dropped to the ground with a slight thump. It wasn't very large, the clean cut side maybe the size of his palm (still quite large actually), but it was definitely sharp. If he couldn't hurt Juli with punches, maybe using something sharp would work.

He opened another gate, this one targeted to reopen right behind his opponent. Readying the claw, Rchimedes II jumped into the gate and lunged at the monster's back. Juli, noticing the presence behind him, turned to see the 2nd charging at him. Juli howled as pain coursed through his side.

Holding the cut with one arm, he slammed the other onto Rchimedes II who stood still in surprise that his plan actually worked. As a result, Juli's hand was free to pound him into the ground. Thinking it was over, Juli reverted to his original form, but kept the hand that was crushing Rchimedes II as it was. His eyes widened when he felt a force pushing on his hand. Rchimedes II lifted the morphed hand surprised that it wasn't as tough as he originally thought it was. Huh, so he was scared for nothing…this was embarrassing.

He threw the hand off him, Juli stopping his magic as he backed up. The 2nd was strong, he always knew that, but he never knew just how strong until now. The gash in his side made a painful reminder to him that it was still there and gushing out blood. He yanked the broken claw out, but only succeeded in increasing the amount of blood that was flowing out from the wound. He needed to get away; there was no way he could fight the 2nd, the difference in power was too great and the wound would only hinder him.

The castle only looked to be a few meters away. How long would it take him to get there? With the 2nd and his annoying gate following him there would be no way of escaping. Was this it? Was this really the end? Was he really that weak?

Juli gritted his teeth. He hated to admit it, in fact he never would nor would he ever. He wasn't weak, but compared to this guy… He glanced at Rchimedes II who hadn't moved aside from getting out of the crater he was once in. Juli looked down pondering. Should he give up? That seemed like the most logical course of action, but there was no guarantee he'd be spared.

No, there was no way he'd give up. Maou left him in charge of the castle and he wasn't going to disappoint him. He whipped his head up, surprising Rchimedes II with his determined glare before dashing toward the castle. Before long, a black hole opened in front of him. Juli quickly maneuvered around it as the 2nd's head popped out.

Another gate appeared, but Juli jumped over it. Unfortunately, a hand shot out before he was completely over. He struggled in the 2nd's grip, height difference being his main enemy at the moment. No, he wouldn't allow it; he would get back to the castle and contact Maou. Where the hell was Juni? How could he not notice anything that was going on?

There's got to be a way out, there just has to. Juli tensed his body, willing for something he wasn't quite sure of to come out, but anything would have worked at that point. Rchimedes II's grip suddenly disappeared and the feeling of wind blowing against him kept his eyes closed.

He carefully cracked an eye open, staring in awe at the sight before him. He was in the sky looking down at the quickly passing ground beneath. He looked behind his shoulder, mouth gaping, seeing two green scaled wings protruding from his shoulder blades. He didn't have much time to marvel before a gate opened in front of him again.

He didn't even need to dodge the arm that came out because once he figured out he had new wings, he dropped halfway toward the earth before regaining altitude. It happened again and again with moments of going too high mixed into it. Needless to say, the 2nd's gates didn't have much effect if he didn't know where his target would go. He was amazed at Juli's control with those seemingly haphazard movements. He nodded to himself, truly impressed.

In actuality, Juli's movements were legitimately out of his control. When he tried to turn, he ended up doing backflips and what not that made him want to hurl. When he tried to fly up, he'd go too high and wouldn't know how to go back down unless he was plummeting another three stories. Somehow, his involuntary flying was successfully evading the 2nd's attempts at grabbing him. But at this rate, he didn't know when he would make it to the castle.

As he was whirling through the air, a thought occurred to him. Why was he so dependent on Maou? Sure the guy was cool and ridiculously powerful, but why was Juli even following these people? Juli screamed at the sudden sight of a wall no less than a foot away from his face. Flailing in desperation, he flapped his wings and crash landed onto the castle balcony above.

Blood splattered onto the floor as he tumbled. He clutched at the gaping wound forcing new pain to try and hide the underlying pain. He glared at the shell-shocked Juni, "Don't just stand there! Get me in contact with Maou-sama!" Even if he didn't understand why he was following Dezember and his bunch, the only one that could help him at the moment was Maou.

"Uh…no…I'd rather not talk to that guy…." Avoiding eye contact, Juni sneaked toward the door, though it wasn't sneaking if it was obvious. "Now!" Juli screeched as his wings flared out. His wings may not be for flight just yet, but Juli was glad they had some intimidation use at least.

Juni got into position, a very lame-looking one at that, as Juli yelled in his face, "Maou-sama! There's a problem at the castle! You need to come back now!"

The booming voice sent shockwaves through the air. No doubt the others in the basement heard it as well. In less than a minute, a black gate formed next to them. Juli jumped to the other side before falling onto a knee due to irritating his side. His sight was starting to get blurry, a sure sign that he was losing too much blood. He willed himself to stay conscious at least until he saw who came out the gate.

A black boot came out first followed by the jingle of metal against metal accompanied by a black cape trailing behind. Maou stepped out onto the balcony. Juli's relieved face turned into petrified horror. Red eyes bore into Juli's own filled with an unquenchable rage. That rage only intensified when those eyes saw Juli's injured state, "Who did this to you?"

Maou's eyes stayed fixed on Juli's injured side. The blond found his mouth dry, making it hard to form a proper answer. All he could manage was "Basem-ment…." His cringed as pain shot through his body causing him to fall forward in a pool of blood. Black boots rippled the crimson liquid as Maou stared down at Juli's battered body. Without a word, he picked the boy up and walked away.

"You." Juni jumped, stiffly turning his neck away from the bloody mess, "Y-yes, s-sir?" Maou's glare didn't falter at Juni's pathetic look. He handed Juli over to him, "Get him treatment."

Juni just went with a quick salute before Maou disappeared. He stayed like that even after he left, thinking, 'I have no idea what to do.'

20 feet under, Crea was shaking Ross in a panic, "We have to go! If that guy finds us here who knows what would happen!" Like everyone else in the two worlds, Crea and Ross heard the notice as well. Ross pushed him away, "Go panic somewhere else."

"But, Shii-tan! We're gonna die!"

"Don't worry. We always have 'Farewell, Crea' for a back up."

"But, Shii-tan! I'm gonna die!"

Ross ignored Crea's rambling. It's not like the warning didn't concern him, oh no, he was freaking out inside. He had been so close to being done, so close, but a tremor occurred and shook his work table. Bottles shattered, liquids went flying and everything was just a giant mess. He ended up adding the Lepard's Tear before it was ready and now he didn't have time to make another. He dropped the unactivated maker into a plastic container hoping this trip wasn't a complete waste.

He scanned the room trying to find anything he could salvage from the wreck, but it didn't seem possible. Suddenly, something black and yellow shot through the wall and into the next. Crea screamed, "Rchimedes-san!" The blond staggered to his feet, "Creashion-san, we must leave immediately."

A shadow loomed over the three. There was a black figure of someone standing on the rubble of the new opening blocking the incoming light. The notable features they could make out were the long flowing cape, cat ears, and piercing red eyes. He took something off the wall, but that was when Rchimedes II grabbed Crea and Ross. Without a word, he jumped through a gate as fast as he could and ducked when they landed, a good thing too. The metal head of a spear shot past them.

Rchimedes II sighed and got up, "That was close. I think I'd be best if we don't go anywhere near there for a while." Crea nodded furiously. Ross stared at the spearhead unbelievingly. He couldn't believe Alba would actually try to kill them. What was going on in his soul? And what was with the ears? How much time did he have left...or was it already too late? Was it already too late to save his friend?

"Shii-tan… Shii-tan~ it's time to go~" Ross blinked. Even if it was too late, he would keep searching for a way; this he vowed. Lake and Salt greeted them when they returned and bombarded them with questions:

"What happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"Did you see Alba-san?"

"What did you do?"

"Did you save him?"

"What's that thing?"

"Demon Lord-san, why are you all bloody?"

Rchimedes II patted their heads, "Calm down. I'm just tired."

"Looks like you got your butt kicked." He sweatdropped at Lake's bluntness, but was too tired to do much else. Crea dragged them away from the weary blond. Rchimedes II sent him a grateful glance before going into the temporary house the neighborhood association gave him.

Lake pounced on the plastic container Ross was holding, but Ross held it too high for him to reach. "Ne, ne, what is that?"

"Nothing you need to-" Ross stopped himself. He lifted the container to look at the floating maker, and then at Lake and back again. Maybe he could be of some use after all. He tossed the container to Lake, "Here. Do what you want with it, but don't lose it."

Lake turned the container this way and that while Ross walked off. He turned to Salt, "Hey, you wanna help me figure out what this is?" Salt hummed, "How do we do that?"

Lake grinned, "Adventure time!" Ross opened the door to Lake's house quickly sidestepping to allow Cecily to run out and then proceeded to close the door behind him planning to take a nap.

Cecily charged toward Lake, but Salt intercepted her path. She grabbed at the air, "I won't let my Lake-chan leave me again!" Salt did his best to hold her back, but he was slowly losing, "Run, Lake! I'll catch up to you!"

Lake didn't move. He processed the scene in his head. Salt was holding off an enemy far stronger than him to allow Lake the opportunity to get away with the treasure. In Lake's head, this came to one conclusion, 'Our first Boss Battle!'

He dropped the container, getting Salt's attention, and ran into his house. "W-what are you doing?!" He came out a minute later holding up a sword, a replication of Alba's sword made from cardboard, "I won't run from my first Boss Battle!"

"Are you an idiot?! If she catches you you'll never be able to leave your house ever again!"

"But-"

"Get out of here!" Lake pouted. Crea pushed the container into his hands, "You better get going. I'm sure Shii-tan wouldn't like it if his mom got a hold of it." Lake looked between Crea, Salt, and the container. He took one last look at Crea, who gave him a thumbs up, and started running.

* * *

At the royal castle with the king, a guard kneeled in front of the throne, "Your Highness, there are three children outside that request a meeting with you. They say it is urgent."

"Kids? Maybe they want to see the 'Legendary King' himself! I am pretty famous, you know." The king nudged the minister beside him and laughed heartedly.

"I'm afraid they said no such thing." The guard kept his head down, "They said demons were attacking the Hero School and wished for us to do something."

The king just laughed, "This is nothing for the 'Legendary King.' Go tell them to find some other lowly king to help them with their lowly problems."

The minister whispered into his ear, "Your Highness, there are no other kings." The king froze for only a moment before laughing, "I guess my legendary-ness must have scared them off!"

"Your Majesty, why not just call for Hero Alba to take the job?" The guard suggested. The king nodded, "Alright, fine. Minister! Get me Hero Alba!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, Hero Alba is gone."

At this time, Rudolf was strolling through the castle and just so happened to be walking by the throne room when he heard a scream. "WHAT?!" The old man peered into the room, letting curiosity take over. The king yelled at the minister, "What do you mean he's gone?!"

"Just as it sounds, Sire. Hero Alba is not in his cave."

"Then find him!"

"There's no need. Dezember already informed me of the situation."

"Dezember? But he betrayed us."

"He never betrayed me. And I would suggest you not get in his way and stay away from the Hero School."

"Minister, you..."

"Ah, I never mentioned it, did I? I'm Dezember's subordinate sent to gain your trust for the first plan, but since that failed and the Demon Lord passed away, a new Demon Lord took his place. This new Demon Lord is unlike all the rest, so I suggest you stay out of it. As your most trusted minister, I recommend listening to me."

Rudolf backed away from the door. It would seem he just listened in on something he wasn't supposed to hear. New Demon Lord? And Alba has gone missing? He needed to inform the others. Hime-chan, Alles, and Foyfoy were all at the Hero Academy which was currently being attacked from what he heard. As strong as they were, Rudolf didn't think they could hold off for very long without back up and the students there were just trainees so they couldn't be counted on. The only one at the castle was Mi-chan. He would get the mutated cat first, and then find Janua and Samejima.

* * *

Back in the Demon World, Maou watched the stick he threw clatter to the floor. He walked away from the scene knowing there was no use in chasing. He scanned the area. To his right was the decimated earth from Juli's battle, while to his left was the castle town in lockdown relatively unharmed. Something wet landed on his cheek. He swiped it with his thumb and found a thick red liquid soaking into his glove. His eyes went wide as he tilted his head up. He was just under the balcony where he left Juli. He stepped into a gate to get there quicker, but froze at the sight he was met with.

A lump of black and yellow was drowning in blood. Juli's hair splayed out, freed from the red clip that always held it, soaking up the crimson liquid around him and slowing becoming red while his clothes were already heavy with blood. His wings were gone, leaving rips and tears in his clothes. Maou slipped his hands under the limp body and gently lifted it into his arms. The blood dripped onto his clothes and touched his skin, but he didn't care. He looked over the city once again as a strong wind flew by. He glared at the small signs of life the city showed as it gradually came out of lockdown and clicked his tongue, "How disgusting."

He turned away from the balcony taking extra care to not make any unnecessary movements. He never understood why he as powerful as he was, why there seemed to be two different people in his head, or even what his goal was. Elf dubbed him the Demon Lord and Dezember named their enemies the human heroes. Okay, that's fine and dandy, keeping with your own kind and hating the other, but what were they trying to accomplish exactly?

The answer always eluded him until now. The humans raided the Demon Lord's castle with a demon helping them out. The rest of the demons in the town didn't bother helping out either side. Maou thought being the Demon Lord meant protecting your fellow demons and having fun, but if they were going to help the enemy, what was the point? What was the purpose of having two different species anyway? It only caused trouble and pain.

The wind howled as clouds blocked the sun, almost as if the higher beings of their world were agreeing or protesting profusely to Maou's resolution. His resolution: Destroy both worlds and create it all anew.

* * *

**I wanted to make this longer, but I realized I hadn't updated in over a month and I wanted** to keep the updates at least once a month. **I've got the next 2-3 chapters planned out (mostly because I end the chapters earlier than planned, like, the plans are an entire page of notes and I end the chapter halfway through either because it was getting too long or I needed to update), it's only a matter of writing them….**

**The next chapter will be about Lake and Salt, sort of a filler and not really necessary to keep the story going, but I feel like leaving a giant chunk of what happened to the failed maker would get confusing, esp. if you're one of those people who skip the A/N's. Sometimes they have really important stuff and are not just rambling on and on about the problems of the author's life.  
**

**Still debating whether I should put RossxAlba in this. Feel free to give me your opinions ^^**


	4. The Adventures of Maker-kun

**I'll tell you one more time: this is considered a filler (at least for me). You do not need to read it if you don't want to. It doesn't make that much of an impact to the story; it's just about Lake and Salt's little adventure. So read it or don't read, it's your choice. There is a reference to this in the next chapter. Not big, just a warning.**

**Oh, and a heads up, there will be an OC, but he really only shows up in this chapter. He's kind of like August; you know, the guy that's friends with Samejima but doesn't actually do anything. So, if you're a hater of OC's, I guarantee you, he will not make any impact on the story whatsoever.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 (Not really): The Adventures of Maker-kun**

Lake dropped the plastic container to hold his knees as he panted. It rolled a little in the sand, still in reach, but Lake wasn't even watching it. Every breath never felt enough for his tired body. He was beginning to question why he even ran as far as he did in the first place...and when did he get to a desert?

When his breathing became tolerable, he looked up and stared at the container a little ways away. The little orb inside stayed floating in the middle making him wonder if there was something else inside that was keeping it up.

He tried reaching for it, but only managed to tap it and it subsequently rolled away from him. Lake groaned, but reached out for it again. He stretched his arm as far as it would go, but he still couldn't reach it. He sucked in his breath and reached even further, but face planted into the dirt. He really didn't want to move at the moment, so he stayed like that for a good while. The sand was really comforting, actually. But, sadly, he still needed to breath. He adjusted his head so that he could still breath while staying in that position, but now he wanted to go to sleep.

Lake just closed his eyes when sand was kicked in his face. "Ah! Lake! What are you doing down there?!" Lake spit out the bit of grainy sand that got in his mouth and wiped the rest off his face. He sighed, "I was trying to take a nap."

"What about the thing Ross-san gave you? He told you not to lose it!"

Lake lazily raised a finger and pointed, "It's right there." Salt jogged over and picked it up. He rubbed the plastic and peered inside, "What is it?"

"No clue," Lake yawned. "I should be the one that's tired!"

Salt sighed and went back to staring at the little orb, "Hey, doesn't it sort of look like that thing on Rchimedes-san's head?" Lake hummed. "You know, that blue thing."

Lake waved him off, "No way. It looks more like a bouncy ball." Salt hummed. Lake did have a point. It certainly looked like one of those colorful bouncy balls. If he asked Salt a few days ago, he would have surely agreed. But for some reason, he just knew it wasn't an innocent ball.

"By the way, how did you find me? I thought I ran pretty far." Salt froze. He didn't know how, he just did. It's like there was a tracker in his head that gave him a view of everything within a certain range. It was scary, actually, but it calmed him knowing where everything and everyone was. How could he tell Lake all this, though? Would he even believe him?

"Uhh...lucky guess?"

"Oh! Okay!" Salt sighed. Sometimes he was glad Lake was such a simpleminded idiot. There was a paused before Salt spoke again, "Well, what do we do now?"

"Adventure!" Lake immediately shouted. Salt stayed silent. Lake knew him long enough to know he just did something stupid. Salt gave outbursts when things were stupid, but when Lake did something that didn't amuse him, Salt would just stare at him just like he was doing now. And then there were the times when Lake would do something truly idiotic. At those times, Salt would...well, neither of them knew exactly what he would do. Not like it mattered right now anyway.

"Like, y'know...let's uhmm... Find a monster or something. There's still a bunch running around."

"We don't have any weapons."

"Oh yeah..."

His eyes darted around, but there really wasn't anything to look at. The only thing of interest was the thing inside the container. Lake took the plastic from Salt, "How about we play with this thing first? Maybe it'll do something cool."

"I...guess that's okay," Salt hesitated. He might have known what it was, but he didn't know what it would do. It just looked like a pretty decoration on Rchimedes' head. He watched Lake struggle as he tried to get the container open. "It won't open!"

"Did you try twisting the top?"

"That's the first thing I tried."

Salt put his hand out, "Let me try." Lake handed the container over. Salt tried to twist the top off, but as Lake said, it didn't work. He tried again on the other side since it was perfectly symmetrical, but again, it didn't work. He flipped the plastic over in his hands looking it over to see if he could spot anything that would open it up, "Did you try everything?"

"Sure." Lake took the container out of his hands, "I tried twisting it, squeezing it, banging it." He demonstrated each one as he said them and continued, "Rolling it, kicking it, cuddling it, kissing it, throwing it." Lake chucked the now scratched up container and ended, "Losing it."

"What's with that 'go long' throw?!" Salt watched the container fly into the distance, "We need to get it back!"

"No worries. It'll come back."

"How are you so nonchalant about this?! Ross-san told you not to lose it! Who knows what that thing could do?!" Lake put a hand to his chest and looked off into the distance with a dreamy expression, "Thank you, Naminé."

"Why are you thanking someone?! And I feel like you just made a reference there..." Salt shook his head; he was going off topic, "Anyway, we need to get it back."

He ran in the direction Lake threw the container. If Lake didn't chase after him then so be it. As usual, it was up to Salt to fix everything. Lake followed him anyway, He couldn't let a party member just walk off, now could he? They had just received their first quest and Lake wasn't going to allow Salt go it alone.

They ran for a good while until Salt had to stop for breath and said panting, "How far did you throw it?!" Lake didn't respond. He pointed in front of them, "Look! There's a city!"

And indeed there was. Lake ran ahead as Salt caught up. The city wasn't so much a city as it was a large town. There were no giant buildings or bustling streets; although the streets were crowded, it was more suburban country life than anything.

Lake took the time to admire everything before Salt got his attention, "C'mon, Lake. The thing's going that way."

Lake followed Salt through the town as the other raven acted like a hound. He followed him to a port with fish and boats everywhere. It was kind of strange; he didn't know he'd thrown it this far. "...Hey, Salt, do you actually know where the ball is?"

He wasn't sure if Salt heard him. The bespectacled boy continued to look through the piles of fish, "It's here somewhere..."

Lake was about to ask again until Salt's head shot up and he shouted, "It's going that way!" They ran back into town and pushed their way through the crowded market. When the busiest part was passed, Salt swiveled his head in every direction. He took off down another street just as Lake got stuck pushing past the last of the people between him and Salt. "Salt! Wait up!"

Salt turned around and grabbed Lake's outstretched arm. He yanked him free and they tumbled to the ground. Lake mumbled into the dirt, "Towns are nice, but I forgot NPC's could be so annoying."

"What are you talking about? What's an NPC?" Salt shook his head, "I shouldn't even be asking." Knowing Lake, he'd just give him some weird answer that didn't make any sense. He got up and dusted his clothes. The people around them gave them a weird look before moving on. Ignoring them, Salt looked over his shoulder. He'd completely lost the maker's signal. If there weren't so many people he'd probably be able to find it. But, it was like the mass of humans clustered in the small town were screwing up his senses.

He turned back to Lake who blinked at him with questioning eyes, "What happened? Did you lose it?" Salt looked down, "I lost the signal and I can't pick it back up."

There was a pause, and then Lake began patting him on the head, then moved to his shoulder, and then his back and so on. Salt let the boy pat him until Lake decided to slap his face. Salt flung his head back and rubbed his sore nose, "What was that for?!"

His only response was two hands grabbing his cheeks and pulling them to distort his face. Salt slapped the offending hands away, "Quit it!"

Salt pushed his glasses up. Lake put a hand to his chin and examined Salt, "You don't feel like a robot...and you look human enough…." Salt's glasses slipped again, "What's a robot? It sounds like you insulted me." He turned, "Forget that. Let's just find the maker."

"Sure, but what's a maker?" Salt began walking, "The ball."

"Oh! Okay!"

* * *

I will now take the time to show you what happened to our beloved (probably useless) maker-kun after Lake chucked it to kingdom come with his abnormal throwing strength. The poor little guy was trapped in its plastic prison as it sailed through the air with the grace of a majestic bird of paradise. Like a bird, it dived down into the great ocean and came back up with fresh prey; it's shimmering feathers sparkling with water.

You couldn't possibly have believed that. If you did then I'm sorry for you. Anyway, it dived into the ocean, yes, and it came back up, indeed, but not by itself. The ocean's surface broke to reveal a fishing net full of gasping fish with the maker hidden among them. Maker-kun was actually quite glad it had its plastic prison to block out direct contact with the fish. Well, that's what it would have thought if it could actually think.

The net was brought onto a boat and the fish dumped onto it unceremoniously. The boat's owner, a nice ol' chap, whistled a catchy tune while rowing the boat to shore. "Camptown ladies sing this song, doo-da, doo-da. Camptown racetrack's five miles long, oh da doo-da day."

Everyone knows this song! Who the bloody hell wouldn't know? It's a classic! Sadly, the old coot didn't even know what he was singing about, but he figured so long as it's got a catchy tune it's worth singing. Moving on, he rowed the boat to the docks and unloaded all the fish into baskets that would go to the market in town. Course, this meant maker-kun would go with them.

But little maker-kun didn't want to be sold as a fish. It'd be taken home to some family filled with goody-two shoes, cut-up and stir-fried and eaten for dinner. Maker-kun was already shivering at the thought.

The basket stopped moving, maker-kun prepared itself for its doom. But, just as the fish above it were taken away, a miracle happened. "Now, what's this?" Sounded a voice above. "Sure doesn't look like any fish I've ever seen. Guess they hooked more trash."

The fish seller threw poor maker-kun into the street. It was kicked and rolled across the dirt before finally stopping at someone's feet. It was picked up, "Well, 'ello there chap. What were you doin' down there, if I may ask?"

"..."

"Well, that's quite alright. I needed someone just like you." The weird guy in the top hat put maker-kun to his cheek. He gained a faraway look in his eyes as he stared into the distance, "You're going to be a star."

He let the silence drag on, probably thinking it was dramatic when it was really just plain weird. And so, maker-kun followed the odd man in strips, not like it had much of a choice.

We skip some boring events and go to the show. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! It is now time, the moment you've all been waiting for: Schuflucheki Cannon with your favorite dare devil Schuflucheki!"

The crowd roared as the lights focused onto the colorful cannon in the middle of the floor. Can you guess who was in the cannon? Why, it was our beloved maker-kun. Oh, maker-kun, how did you end up like this?

Poor maker-kun was scared out of its skin. The match was lighted and the sparking of the fuse was all it could hear despite the crowd's roaring. Please oh please, someone get it out of there!

The fuse was out; the cannon was shot. Goodbye, maker-kun, you've told a wonderful story.

...

Oh pish posh, this story isn't finished yet. We still have a long way to go, my friends!

We come back to find our dear maker-kun flying through the air once again. I wonder what magnificent metaphor I should use this time.

Oh no, looks like I don't have time; maker-kun just crashed through a window! Screams pierced the air as maker-kun lie on the floor. This was another instance when it was glad it was surrounded by plastic…. Oh no again! Maker-kun seemed to have lost it!

The room was littered with broken glass along with the scattered remains of maker-kun's precious sanctuary. Soldiers ran into the room demanding to know what happened. They crouched down to examine the bloody man. Oh my, how did we not notice this before? It would appear that maker-kun crashed into a poor man's head!

A soldier noticed maker-kun and picked it up, "Were you the one that killed this man?"

"..."

"...The silent treatment, huh? We'll get you to talk one way or another. Let's move out!"

And so, maker-kun was carried to the station and brought in for questioning. The light of the single lamp in the compact room didn't help to light it out any. The two people in the room didn't help to comfort maker-kun either. The interrogator on the other side of the table wrote something on a clipboard, "Alright, what were you doing in the house?" The other guy tilted the lamp.

"..."

"How did you kill him?"

"..."

"Did you kill him?"

"..."

"Where'd you get your haircut?"

The interrogator threw the clipboard and slammed his hands down, "You will tell me where you got your haircut!"

"Sir, I think that's enough." The other guy in the room put his hand on the interrogator's shoulder, "By the way...who are we interrogating?"

How rude. Maker-kun was sitting right there. Although to be frank, the table was quite high and the chair was really low. "Take him to the dungeon!"

Two more people in uniforms walked through the door and carried maker-kun out of the room. The lamp guy patted the bawling interrogator's back, "It's okay, my little button. Let's go get some ice cream."

While the humans were out getting ice cream, maker-kun sat alone in the dampness of its prison cell. A few shrill notes of a harmonica cut through the silence. Another man in prison stripes sat next to maker-kun blowing into his harmonica. He looked pretty young to be called a man, actually. He looked down at maker-kun, "Hey."

"..."

"Don't feel like talking, huh?" He blew a few more notes, "Not a problem. Everyone's like that when they first get here. Except for Looney Bloo."

"Arkva! Aye screfya blakjuk! Whoollulululululululu!"

"Yep, don't wanna mess with him. So whatcha in for?"

"..."

"Don't wanna talk about it? 'S fine. I was put here 'cause I was playing the harmonica, but they let me keep it anyway."

"..."

"Yeah. I'm not too sure why either." He started playing, but stopped abruptly, "What's your name?"

"..."

The guy gave an airy laugh and brought his harmonica back to his lips, "Alright, well, tell me when you do. My name's Xeno." He proceeded to play a song. It was soothing; a nice distraction from reality's cruel ways. He continued his song with his skyblue eyes closed off to the world in blissful content. If he weren't in prison stripes, it'd probably look angelic.

What a long day it had been for maker-kun. At least, in the end, it had made a friend. It was ready to get this day over with and in a few hours it would be.

"Psst."

Oh, what now? Couldn't they see maker-kun only wanted this day to end? "Sorry, I know you must be tired, but I have a way out."

A way out? That was marvelous! Maker-kun could escape this false conviction. But how reliable was this way out? Since it was Xeno, it would hope for the best. "I'm not really sure about this, but I'm not at fault. Unless there's a law against playing the harmonica. Oh man, what if there really is? Then I'd actually be a criminal! I-I'd be hunted down and executed on the spot!"

"Hey! Quiet down, punk! You're gonna give us away!" Xeno cowered at the harsh whisper, "S-sorry. Let's go." He scooped up maker-kun and scurried out the broken door after the burly men. There had always been the question of how the door got like that without anyone noticing, but we might as well leave it as a gift from the gods.

The escapees crept through the building. Maker-kun had to wonder why they weren't going for the exit. The leader just walked right past it and continued onto the stairs and out to the roof. Xeno seemed to share maker-kun's confusion, "Excuse me. Why are we on the roof?"

The guy in front crossed his arms and smirked, "Because it's what criminals do!"

...I...I believe he means a hero. "Ah! Okay!"

No no, Xeno. The man was clearly confused. Someone knocked into Xeno causing him to drop maker-kun. Maker-kun tumbled across the roof and fell off the edge before Xeno could make a grab for it. It bounced off the narrow walls and fell through an open window into what seemed like to be a karaoke club.

Disco lights lit up the room and people danced as the colorful lights washed over them. Perhaps this was a bit exaggerated or perhaps maker-kun's memory was foggy while writing this, but I'm pretty sure there were no lights at that time much less colored ones.

Ignoring the extremely advanced technology, maker-kun ended up landing on the chair in the middle of the stage. The DJ switched up the tracks as the last song ended, "Alright dudes and bras, microphones are working once again, so who wants the first shot?! Oh! Looks like we have an excited volunteer! Couldn't wait, could ya?"

The DJ spotted maker-kun on the chair already, "Well, alright then. What song would ya like?"

"..."

"Don't have one? Then let's pick one at random! Aaaand here we go!"

The music started up. Some in the crowd began dancing while others sat on the edges eating or talking. When the lyrics were supposed to start, the crowd went wild. People cheered and some even cried. The talkers stopped and stared at the stage as well; their conversations obviously not as amazing as whatever was going on.

And what was going on, you ask? Maker-kun, of course! It had just the most wonderful voice you'd ever hear.

The song ended with silence. Then, the entire building was in an uproar yelling "Encore!" "Sing another!" "Don't stop!"

Maker-kun felt so loved. After that grueling journey it had finally found a nice place. The DJ flipped through the songs and picked another at random. Right when the music started, the crowd went wild. And when the lyrics came up, they were balistic.

Looks like my time I up. I'll be back at the end, so fear not! You've not heard the last from me. For now, I'll pass the narration on to someone else.

Over by the door to the building, two kids stood, one admiring and the other dumbfounded. One of them bounced around the disco ball, "This is so cool! How do they get all the pretty lights?!"

"I feel like we've just time traveled 1000 years into the future..." mumbled the other one. His eyes swept to the stage where he spotted maker-kun. Maker-kun had changed. It was no longer a plain, dull orb. The new maker-kun glowed a brilliant blue as its mana blazed like dancing flames. "Lake! I found the maker!"

Salt climbed onto the stage and was about to grab maker-kun until a large man in a yellow shirt picked him up by the back of his shirt. "And what do you think you're doing?"

Salt looked over his shoulder at the pudgy man's face, "I'm just trying to get that. We'll leave soon."

"I don't think so." By then, Lake had climbed onto the stage as well. The music stopped playing, so all attention was now on the commotion on stage. Salt struggled, "It's ours. I don't know how it got here, but we're taking it back."

"Ohh! Is this a challenge I'm hearing?" The DJ had a big grin on his face. "What? No! I didn't say anything like that!"

Lake put a hand up to block Salt from talking. He had this determined stare that made Salt worries, "Don't worry, Salt, I'll handle this."

He picked up a microphone, "If it's a challenge you want, it's a challenge you'll get!" The crowd screamed and cheered. The DJ cheered with them as he scrolled through the tracks, "Alright then! Let's get it on!"

The music started, everyone went dead silent. The security guard carried Salt off the stage, but let him stay to watch the show.

_**"Fumidasu oku fukaku ni ippo me no juuyousei. Tadashisa wo tou nichiyou manneri. Me wo fusaide ikitai no ni yoyuu nante nai n da yo. Itsumu no henzutsuu fight again!"**_

Salt sweatdropped. He never knew Lake could sing like that. What was with that voice? It didn't sound like Lake at all. There was a really long pause that seemed completely out of place. Salt just stared. Don't tell him...did the audience really think maker-kun was singing? It was an inanimate object! How did they expect it to sing?!

Lake started up again in that voice that really didn't sound like him, _**"Hokori ni mamirete kanariya no kago. Sore wa arifureta namida no kako. Donna ni kirei ni naita tokoro de hontou no koe wa kikoe ya shinai. Boku wa dami goe no, kanariya!"**_

Cue awesome guitar solo. It was a nice song; Salt even found himself nodding his head to the beat, and Lake was one hell of a singer.

The song continued with Lake pausing at times to let the maker sing. The moments of silence felt off, but no one seemed to notice. Lake had picked up the maker while he was singing and looked to be singing with it; though, Salt still couldn't hear anything.

The crowd went absolutely batshit crazy at the end. Lake bowed with the maker still in his hand and the microphone in the other. They walked off stage together and made their way toward Salt. Salt shook his head. He did not just think of the maker as an actual person. His eye twitched at the possibility he was going crazy.

"Salt! Salt! Did you hear her?! She was amazing!" Salt stared at him oddly, "Who?"

"Maker-chan!"

"Maker...chan...?" Either Salt was hearing things or Lake was crazy. He knew Ross added the honorific -kun to the end. He never questioned why. Maybe it was just in the family, but why would Lake make it a girl? "Lake, I think you should sit down for a while."

It was Lake's turn to stare at him oddly, "Why? I'm perfectly fine. And we got maker-chan back." He grinned at the blazing orb in his hands. Salt sighed. They got the maker back; that's all that really mattered. Now they can finally leave this weird town. Now that he thought about it, where were they?

He noticed Lake put the maker on his head, "Stop!" It was too late. Salt grabbed the maker just as it hit Lake's head. A blinding explosion erupted blowing up the entire building and everyone along with it.

When the light died down, the whole area was in ruins. In the middle of it all was a bright blue orb. Inside that orb, Salt stared at the shield encasing them with awe. Everything within the orb was completely unharmed including the wooden floor. Lake had his hands over his head but was otherwise untouched.

"Lake..." Said raven carefully peeled his eyes open. His red eyes glimmered when they saw the screen of blue protecting them. The maker atop his head flickered and danced as it became slightly smaller taking the shield with it.

This didn't go unnoticed, "Lake, did you do that?" Lake remained silent. Suddenly, he started screaming, "That was so awesome! Maker-chan! You were amazing!" It blazed at the compliment like it could actually understand him. Salt waved his hand, "Lake, I don't think it-"

"She!"

"...Uh..._she_ can hear you."

"Well of course she can." Lake giggled, "She just huffed at you."

Salt tentatively nodded his head. He sighed, "Now that we got it-"

"_Her!_"

"...Now that we got _her_ back. Let's go home before anything else happens."

"But what about our adventure?" Lake pouted. "Well, we need weapons. We can go home and get them and leave the maker-"

"_Maker-chan!_" Salt sighed, "_Maker-chan_ with Ross-san."

Lake looked up at the maker on the right side of his head, "What do you think, Maker-chan? Ross is my big brother...I mean little brother, but he's older than me…. Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either…. Okay, sure."

Salt waited patiently. There are no words to describe what was going on in his mind. He was just so done with this day. Lake smiled at him, "Maker-chan says she'll meet Ross and decide whether she wants to stay or not."

Salt just nodded. He really couldn't do much else. What did you expect him to do? Go along with everything like it wasn't weird at all? No. It _was_ weird. Salt might go along with this stuff sometimes, but he was a sane person overall. "Let's just go home. I'm tired."

Well, at least Lake went along with that.

This concludes the adventures of Maker-k- *cough* ...I mean -chan. This concludes the adventures of our dear Maker-chan. Told you I'd be back. But, alas, I must leave once again. I can not guarantee a return this time. But, I hope you enjoyed the story.

* * *

**The song was "Canary" by Granrodeo, Senyuu's second opening theme the one for season 2), but only the first verse. Writing the whole song is annoying and there's no point if nothing is happening. Frankly, reading events and actions happening while the lyrics are going on is tedious and takes so much effort. Plus, it's so easy to skip over events, but even then you'd still be okay because the actions are (most times not always) pointless.**

**I did, at first, wanted to put chapter 5 up at the same time so that you could skip this one if you wanted, but it was just taking too long. I want to say chapter 5 is half-way done, but I can't. **

**And forgive me for the suffixes. I'm not really sure who calls who -san or even adds a suffix. I try to keep track of it, but it just gets so confusing sometimes.**


	5. Ross, Wondering

**Quick note: In case you didn't know, Alba's name is pronounced Aruba, so his nickname would be Aru, like Shion's is Shii.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Ross, Wondering**

"Ross-san!" Said raven turned. Lake and Salt ran up to him with the first carrying the inactive maker in his hand...or what was supposed to be inactive.

Lake held his hand out with the maker in it as Salt said, "Ross-san! We don't know what happened, but it suddenly became like this."

Ross took the flaming maker and examined it before stating, "You don't know how it got like this."

"N-no! We just found it like that." Ross didn't miss Salt's tense posture or stutter. There was also Lake in the bespectacled boy's face yelling "She! How many times do I need to tell you?!" It was blatantly obvious there was something Ross was missing. If they didn't want to tell him how they activated the defective maker then so be it; although, it would help to know for later events.

There was also the fact that he didn't know what emotion they used to activate it. The makers being fueled by hatred was Rchimedes' idea. Since Ross didn't have a lot of knowledge on it back then, he also assumed hatred was the only source of power. Now that he knew the makers could be powered on any powerful emotion, it opened up a lot more possibilities. The only problem was, if the emotion was unknown, how would he know how to power the maker?

He sighed through his nose and popped the maker onto his head. Since the container seemed to have disappeared, the only safest place to keep it was with him. It surprised him a bit to feel the maker loosen its hold on his head. He put it off as a figment of his imagination when the feeling left as quickly as it came. It was still on his head, so there was no need to think much of it.

Ross tossed something to Lake who fumbled with it before firmly clutching it in his hands, "You guys can have this one."

It was another maker, this time already activated. After leaving the defective maker with the kids, Ross got Rchimedes II to take him searching for more ingredients. There was enough for only one, but at least he didn't mess up with this one. He blamed the first attempt on the ruckus going on at the time.

He was debating whether or not he should tell them how to power it. It might have been beneficial, but they might try too hard. If he didn't tell them, they wouldn't know how to use it at all. The only reason Ross made another one was because he thought the defective maker was, well, defective. He didn't expect them to activate it. He couldn't yell at them; they didn't do anything wrong, but the possibility of the maker being unstable was still plausible. He'd need to be careful.

He decided he wouldn't tell them. If they wouldn't tell him about Maker-chan, he wouldn't tell them about Maker-kun. It might have been harsh, but hey, if they didn't die from the defective maker exploding on their head then they'd die fighting. He was already saving their lives. No need to go any further. There was also the fact Ross was a rather vindictive person when he wanted to be.

"Alright. Now I'm going to teach you how to fight." At this, Lake instantly lit up. His hand shot up and waved frantically. Did the kid think they were in school? Ross ignored him, "Salt, put the maker on your head."

Lake shook his arm harder. Salt looked between Lake and Ross contemplating what to do. He slowly raised his hand too, but didn't wait to be called on, "Uhm, Ross-san. I think Lake should try it first."

Lake was waving both his hands now. At this point, he wasn't even looking at the other two. He was much too preoccupied waving his arms like he was trying to make an air-angel.

Ross didn't see much in this guy, brother or not, and it wasn't just because he didn't have any Tsukkomi traits. He had a kind heart and was willing to do anything for his friends. All great characteristics of a stereotypical hero, but Ross knew those traits would only get in the way. The only reason Rchimedes lived as long as he did was because Ross didn't kill him when he had the chance. It would forever be something he would regret.

The other problem was that he couldn't fight and didn't seem like the type to think before he acted either. In a way, Lake reminded Ross of himself―not that he'd ever admit it―and it only strengthened his resolve to not include Lake in the upcoming fights. He didn't want Lake to end up like him: a hero born from his own mistakes who didn't even consider himself a hero. After all, the only thing Ross had been doing while prancing around as Creashion was tying up loose ends that he himself had created.

Ross mentally shook his head and stared intently at the ground. He supposed this time was different. Lake didn't know Alba on a personal level, so it wouldn't be hard for him to kill the brunet if they had to resort to that. Ross' heart wrenched at the idea. His throated contracted, and he fisted his hands. No, he refused to think about that. Not now, at least.

For now, he took the maker out of its container and handed it to Lake, "Alright. Lake, put maker-kun on."

Lake gave a shit-eating grin and popped the maker onto the right side of his head like Ross.

The strange thing about Lake was the fact that there wasn't a single explosion or a mysterious black hole that manifested during his training. Instead, nothing happened. Seriously, nothing happened.

Lake tried as hard as he could to follow Ross' orders, the elder even resorted to exaggerating syllables, but it was no use. The only thing he accomplished was exhausting himself by tensing his body in a vain attempt to do as Ross instructed.

Ross eyed the boy as he attempted once again to summon even a bout of magic. And, once again, he wasn't doing it correctly. Ross had explained the process several times, but he still wasn't getting it. Was this kid hard of hearing or something? It wasn't even that difficult. Surrounding yourself in a coat of mana was the basics of basics. He didn't even need to tense his body like that at all.

He watched Lake struggle and felt his eye twitch when his little brother (actually older) let out a fart and then started laughing. Ross held his head in his hand and addressed Salt, who was standing beside him also watching the spectacle, "Get maker-kun from Lake."

The boy didn't argue. He could tell Ross had had enough. Salt knew Lake did have the potential. He didn't understand why his friend couldn't use his power now, though.

He also didn't trust himself with the maker. Lake's efforts may have been fruitless, but his abilities were protective―from what Salt had seen when Lake had been in contact with the defective maker―so he was less likely to cause an explosion. Salt, on the other hand, thought he was more of a sensory type based on his current mana.

He explained what Ross wanted and, dejected, Lake handed the maker over. Lake put his hand on Salt's shoulder. His sense of failure was still clear on his face, but he grinned and gave Salt a thumbs up, "Go get 'em!"

Salt wasn't sure who he was referring to. It wasn't like they were in a life and death kind of battle or anything. Nonetheless, Salt smiled and nodded. Lake went to stand by Ross as Salt was left to ponder what to do with the maker in his hands.

It hadn't exploded yet; that was a good sign. He supposed he needed to put it on his head for it to work. It was strange when the maker connected, like a flame was lit inside him, and the heat flowed throughout his body leaving it tingling and restless. It felt like he had too much energy, like he could run for days on end and could still do more.

His senses heightened all at once. The map in his head seemed to become limitless. He could see people miles away talking to each other. He could see the monsters roaming about. He could feel the breeze on his skin and see the dust it brought with it. He could sense Lake and Ross, the slight movement from their breaths, their steady heartbeat getting louder as he concentrated on them, and the tiny flecks of mana within them flickering and enchanting.

Mana seemed to be the easiest to sense; it was by far the most prominent. Even before he had the maker, mana had always been the easiest to pinpoint, but he couldn't tell how much or how powerful it was. Now, he could gauge the power differences between things. Like that really big blotch of mana a few miles away from them according to his mental map. It was rather large compared to Salt's, but wasn't as powerful as Rchimedes who was just a ways away in his temporary home. It seemed to be at the Hero school a few miles off.

"Salt! What are you waiting for? Get to training already."

Salt blinked back to reality. The source of the mana didn't seem to be moving very much, so there wasn't a need to worry at the moment. He didn't bother looking into it; it was probably just something the teachers were doing. So long as it stayed far away from them, Salt didn't need to bring it up. He focused on what Ross was telling him, but still kept an eye on the mana in case it did something.

Salt had just gotten the hang of surrounding his body with mana when a sudden burst of mana overloaded his senses. It was huge, far too large to be a single entity. But Salt knew; the source of all that power was a single person.

The mana was so powerful that it blocked his sight of the entire area. He could tell it was coming from someone, but he didn't know who. Was it coming from the same source as the mana earlier? He should have checked when he had the chance. As hard as he tried to gain sight to the area, they were futile attempts.

"Sal-"

"Ross-san!" He felt bad for cutting off Lake like that, but this was an urgent matter. "There's something going on at the Hero school! We need to help!"

"Creashion-san!" Rchimedes appeared beside them not a minute after, "Creashion-san, I sense someone to the west. It's most likely Alba-kun."

Everyone stayed silent to let Ross think. They knew it must have been hard for him. He'd had many encounters with his friend-turned-enemy and none of them had been friendly chats.

Salt could sympathize with him. If Lake had been the one that was converted, Salt wouldn't know what to do either. He wanted to respect the older raven, but he was scared what the owner of that mana would do if they left him alone for too long. He still couldn't see the area clearly, but if it really was Alba... It was Ross' decision.

Ross stared at the ground. On one hand, he could see Maou and put everyone in peril again; on the other, they could leave him be and hope he didn't do anything too extreme. He wasn't sure what Maou was planning, but he wasn't going to put everyone's lives at risk before they were able to stand up to him.

There was no doubt that Maou was ridiculously strong. None of them could face him, not yet at least. They would leave him alone and focus on strengthening themselves first. He should probably find Teufel again as well. Maou could do what he pleased, but they would need to take action if it became too dangerous.

Ross dragged his eyes over the three people in front of him, "We should leave him alone. We're not ready to fight him now." He turned specifically to Salt, "You're a sensory type, aren't you? How far can you see?"

Salt hummed, "I can see as far as the ocean to the east, but everything after that is fuzzy. The maker helps a lot with focusing on things; though, I can't see in the school. The mana there is obscuring my vision."

Ross put his hand on his chin. He was rather impressed. The kid had talent to be able to see that far. He could be even better than Janua. "You can't see anything in the building?"

Salt shook his head and ignored Lake's gushing about how cool he was and how he wished he could do that, too. "Can you see anything around the school?"

Salt closed his eyes to concentrate. His eye twitched at Lake's annoying rambling. Salt yelled at him to shut up before going back to concentrating again, "There is something. There are two other large mana sources heading for the school."

"Who are they?"

"One looks like a farmer, and one of his eyes is covered by his hair. The other one is tanned and has some pins in his hair. There are two others behind him. An old soldier talking to a cat...?" He trailed off, but Ross knew exactly who they were save one of them.

What was Janua doing there? Rudolf and Mi-chan also left the castle. Did word get out that the school was being attacked? That was unlikely; there was no way the school could have contacted the castle being under attack and all. But really, what the hell was Janua doing there?

Ross shouldn't worry too much. Janua was good at sensing mana, so he should know the school was dangerous. "Ah. He stopped."

"Keep watching him. If he does anythin—"

"He's running for the school now!" Ross scowled. Why, Janua? "Change of plans. Rchimedes, we need to stop them. Salt, Lake, you two stay here."

"No way!" Lake glared at Ross, "You aren't leaving us behind again. We want to go with you this time!" Salt voiced his agreement.

Ross took only a second to hesitate. He couldn't waste time arguing, "Fine. Just don't do anything stupid."

* * *

Desks and chairs were forced out of their perfect alignment as someone crashed through them and into a wall destroying that as well. The wall crumbled into a pile of rubble under the figure not making for the best of landings.

Dezember wiped the blood from his mouth. This was ludicrous. How could he, the Demon Lord's right hand man, lose to a couple of magic-less humans?

A scruffy bald guy swinging a chain stared down at him, "Give it up, demon."

"Tch," Dezember glared defiantly at him. He wouldn't let some lowly human beat him. He brought his hand up to call for his shadows, "Dunkelheit!"

A brunette used her two knives to slice up the shadows with ease. She stood next to the one with the chain increasing the tension with her own imposing aura, "We're not third years for nothing, you know."

Dezember gritted his teeth. Without his other five selves, he was next to useless.

Just when he thought he was done for, the chain few out of the man's hand as he was kicked into the wall. The lady brought up her knives, but couldn't even see the punch that smacked her into the ground.

A black cloth blocked Dezember's vision until it gently drifted back to its wearer's side. Maou stood before them glaring down at the heroes-in-training with blazing red eyes. "Maou...sama."

Noin ran to Dezember's side. "Noin."

The boy in the bear suit put his finger in front of his mouth and hissed, "He's really mad right now, so you need to be quiet."

"Mad?" Now that he mentioned it, Maou's power did seem to be increasing. Although the power normally needed to come from an outside source, if the host had enough emotion he could power it himself albeit at a much lower rate.

Maou scanned the room, his hands itching for destruction. He spotted two enemies: a man with a scar over his eye and another man with an afro. He gasped, "Afro Ninja!"

"That name can't be used lightly..." Dezember whispered. Noin was probably the only one that heard him, but the boy was too focused on the fight before him to respond. Maou chuckled, but it was humorless, "As much as that makes me happy, I'm not in the mood."

His smile vanished just before he charged. A simple punch to the face sent the ninja crashing through the wall and into Mi-chan, who was just outside.

"Mi-chan!" Janua started to lift the unconscious man, but stopped when Mi-chan protested. He let the man drop back onto Mi-chan earning a moan that he didn't think much of nor did he want to.

Teufel tapped Janua's shoulder shaking violently as he stared behind them. Janua turned to look at the person climbing over the rubble in the wall. He prepared himself for the worst, but when he got a good look, he didn't know what to think, "Alba?"

It certainly looked like Alba if his hair wasn't black and his eyes weren't both red and glaring down at him with no recognition whatsoever. His presence was different as well. Alba never held much intimidation, but this person in front of him was radiating irritation and power. His mana signature was also different, but it was familiar at the same time. If this wasn't Alba, then who was he?

This new person continued to stare, his face unreadable as he repeated the name slowly, "Aru...ba…?"

Suddenly, something slammed into the ground just a foot away from Janua. Another raven sat there, head down and fist in the ground. Everyone waited for him to do something, but instead of continuing his attack, he slumped over in the crater he created. Noin ran to Maou's side, "I'm very sorry, Maou-sama! He moved on his own! That other guy is moving, too, but I managed to hold him down."

The elder didn't give any sign that he had heard him other than a slight tilt of his head.

"Hold it right there!"

Two more people dropped from the sky, these two a lot younger, and two more soon after. Lake jutted his finger at Maou, "Alba-san! Your days are numbered!"

"That doesn't work here!" Lake gave Salt a thumbs up, "I always wanted to say that! Now that I've achieved my life goal, I can die in peace."

"You can't die! There's still more in this chapter!" Salt turned to Maou, who had done nothing but stare at the group with an expressionless face, "Is that...Alba-san?"

No one answered him. Ross stepped forward, "Maou. Leave this place. You know well enough that these heroes can't stand against you, so spare them. There's no pride in defeating the weak."

Maou stared at them a while longer, Noin at his side darting his eyes back and forth between the cluttered humans (plus extra) and his Lord. Ross stood his ground, but the longer they stood there the more antsy he became. Just as Ross thought his words weren't any use, Maou turned and walked back into the building. He slung Dezember's limp body over his shoulder, seemed he fainted before company arrived, and opened a gate, "Noin, we're leaving."

"H-hai." As much as Noin wanted to fight, he didn't want Maou to turn and beat him into the ground. The raven probably wouldn't do that, but the thought was scary enough. Besides, Noin didn't think he could take on all those people plus Janua on his own anyway.

They jumped through the portal with Noin sparring one last glance at the humans. Ross instantly relaxed when the gate closed. He had been very surprised that Maou actually listened to him, but there had been something different about him. That cheery idiot of a Demon Lord was no where to be seen and in its place was a freighting persona of terror and pure power. Whatever had changed Maou was most definitely not good for Ross.

For now, though, he was glad they didn't need to fight. He turned to Janua and Rudolf, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Rudolf-san asked for my assistance in finding Alba. It was rather odd, though; I couldn't seem to see him. A blurry image of this place appeared instead, so we came here."

"You couldn't find him?"

Janua nodded, "It was very strange. I couldn't pick up Alba's mana signature anywhere. The closest one seemed to be, ah, what did you call him? Maou?"

Ross never heard of someone's mana signature disappearing. Actually, he never heard of mana signature at all. The way he found people was simply looking for big sources of mana. Since Janua was a sensory type, he supposed it would have made sense that the other raven knew more about tracking people. Still, Alba's presence disappearing was worrying all the same. He'd need to confront him soon.

Off to the side, Lake groaned, "We came all the way here and didn't even fight."

"It was a waste of energy, but the Second was the one that carried us here since they didn't have any of those protective suits, so he's the only one that's tired." Salt glanced at the panting (former) Demon Lord, then back at Lake, "But, was that really Alba-san?"

"Course it was. Who else could he be?"

"How can you be so sure? Ross-san called him 'Maou,' didn't he? And he sure didn't look like Alba-san."

Lake tilted his head, "What do you mean? Of course that was Alba-san."

Salt stared hard at his best friend, "Do you secretly have ESP? Are you a psychic?"

Well, this was Lake, so anything was possible. Lake just laughed, "Good one, Salt!"

"That wasn't a joke." Clearly, he wasn't going to get an answer. Salt sighed, giving up, and decided to check their surroundings while they waited for Ross to finish talking.

There was still a very large mana source, but that was just the guy Ross was talking to. The others along with the massive one that Salt had sensed earlier had disappeared. He had no doubt that the massive mana source had been that scary guy with the cape.

Salt couldn't believe that was Alba, though. There was just no way. The Alba he looked up to was no more. The Alba that had disappeared back in Leott Village was gone as well. Both had given way to a mysterious and frightening creature. He couldn't say it was human, even if he knew it was Alba. There was just something...off.

Ross called the two boys over, and the group began walking back to the village with Janua's entourage tagging along. Salt took one last look at the destroyed wall where Maou once stood. Though they may have avoided the bullet this time, he couldn't shake the feeling that his words weren't the only reason the demons didn't fight.

Ross paused… What was a bullet?

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**This wasn't supposed to be the end of this chapter, but I figured nearly a year was way too long for an update. Has it really been that long? Yes, save a few months. I just have one thing to say: Man, college prep sucks.**


	6. Maou, Assembling

**After reading killakilltalia's story, I realized that my Juli is really OOC. I'm very sorry if it annoys people, but I can't change it now. Sorry.**

**NOTE:****1) This is not a romance. ****2) Domulu and any future characters that will appear are not OCs. However, their characterizations will be all me because Haruhara didn't give them personalities. Domulu is very briefly shown (for one panel) in ****Senyuu Jump Square (chapter 21). If you've read it, it's when all the demons were coming out of the hole right after Elf appeared.**

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**Chapter 6: Maou, Assembling**

Maou and Noin dropped onto the balcony of the Demon Lord's castle. Noin glanced at his Lord's unreadable face. It was eerie that the normally cheerful grin was gone and the red eyes had yet to close. He really wanted to know why they didn't fight back there. They could have won easily and destroyed the school without a problem. What made Maou want to leave? It couldn't have been Creashion's words.

Just as Noin opened his mouth to voice his thoughts, Maou sprinted into the building. Dezember's prone body jiggled lifelessly against Maou's back as they ran.

Maou bolted down the halls and slammed through the walls into what looked like the infirmary. There were beds off to the side and cabinets lining the walls. Luckily the cabinets holding all the medicine weren't on the wall that Maou knocked down.

Occupying one of the beds was an unconscious Juli wrapped in bandages with his hair splaying out on the pillow. Next to him was a women with a green jacket.

Maou immediately focused on this stranger and charged at her with a punch. She jumped away quickly, but Maou stopped his punch just before hitting Juli. He swerved on his heel and charged at her again. They repeated this process: Maou attacking with nothing but flying punches and kicks always stopping short of breaking something while the lady hopped around also careful not to disrupt the items in the room too much.

At one point, the defender caught sight of Dezember flopping precariously on Maou's shoulder.

"Darling!" She jumped over Maou's fist and landed behind him, catching Dezember's eye. Apparently, Dezember woke up a while ago, but he didn't want to say anything because it didn't feel like a good moment. His body became rigid when Justice beamed at him.

Maou stopped his pursuit when he felt Dezember go stiff. He turned around, breaking their gaze and instead locked his own red eyes onto her, "Who are you?"

"Guilty Justice! Ally of Justice!" She jutted her thumb at herself and smiled, but despite that Maou could tell she was still on guard.

"You know this guy?" Maou pointed at Dezember draped over his shoulder.

"No!" Dezember yelled at the same time Justice said, "Yes!"

Maou paused. They clearly knew each other, but Dezember didn't seem to like her. Well, whatever. He needed to put Dezember down sometime. Maou lifted Dezember's body, stiff as a board, and set him standing in front of him. Before the shadow guy could hide behind Maou, Justice tackled him into a bear hug, "Darling!"

As Dezember choked in her hold and begged to be released, Noin rushed over to Juli. Maou watched Justice make a few cracks in Dezember's spine, "Why are you here? And how did you get in?"

She let Dezember flop against her arms now that his spine was barely existent, "If Darling is there, I always find a way. When I got in, though, I heard that little guy causing a riot in his sleep." She looked at Juli with pity, "He was bleeding out. Plus, he had a fever, so I changed his bandages and took care of him."

Maou glanced at Juli's quivering form on the bed with Noin watching over him, and then turned back to give Justice a small bow, "Thank you."

"Demon Lord-sama! You musn't bow! It's unbefitting of you!" Dezember tried to break free of Justice's grip to stop his lord from destroying his pride, but Justice gave another squeeze, and Dezember went limp again.

Maou didn't care about his pride, though. He bowed because he was truly grateful to Justice for her help. He was, however, confused by her actions. Maybe there were some demons that were worth saving after all. Even still, he didn't want to hold off his plan to search for a few worthy demons out of millions. Though his view of a Demon Lord was one who protected his fellow demons, 99% of the demon population wasn't worth saving. Besides, that was just too much work.

"Dezember." Said demon lifted his head, ignoring Justice's fawning as much as he could. "Can you tell me...where the End of the World is?"

At those words, everyone in the room froze. Only a few of them, namely Dezember and Justice, were born when Rchimedes created the Demon World—when the End of the World was created—but everyone knew what it was and its purpose. Well, with a name like "End of the World," of course everyone would know what was. No one knew why Rchimedes created it. They just knew not to mess with it. Not like anyone knew where it was.

"I don't. I'm sorry." He was cautious when he answered. Maou could tell. He'd have to choose his words carefully, "What would you say if I decided to use it?" Eh, maybe not that carefully. But it wasn't like they could stop him.

The shadow demon gulped and said slowly, "If Demon Lord-sama wishes it, then I shall follow."

Maou smiled brightly, "Great! I'm not going to be doing much right now, so you guys can rest easy. For now, I need to go talk to some people."

Though his smile was bright, the atmosphere in the room hadn't eased one bit. Noin was shivering slightly next to Juli, and Dezember was scrutinizing Maou with a careful gaze. Justice kept her arms wrapped around Dezember's waist, but she was also looking at Maou. She couldn't help but admire the guy even though he attacked her on sight. There was also something very familiar about him, but she didn't know what.

If she had more time to examine him she could probably figure it out. Too bad Maou had to leave. He was so dark (which equals "cool" to her) that she almost wanted to give up Dezember― No! Darling was Darling, and she wasn't going to give him up for anyone or to anyone. Dezember screeched when Justice broke his spine.

Maou walked through the castle easily, almost as if he knew it like the back of his hand. He really should have been sleeping. He had a lot planned for tomorrow, but he had one more thing to do before he could rest.

He opened the door to a dark room illuminated by only a single, flickering flame that had stayed lit for over 1000 years. Maou picked up a dusty mirror, about the size of an average book, and smashed it onto the ground in front of the candle. He crouched down and carefully arranged the glass pieces to resemble the formation he had seen in his vision.

Oh, had he not mentioned the visions? Lately, he would see strange pictures, like a bystander in a movie but seeing through the eyes of one of the characters. The visions were all rather different. None of them seem to correlate with each other. It almost seemed like there were a bunch of different stories. One moment he would be destroying a village, and the next would be fighting demons with a spiky-haired raven. The same raven as the guy he confronted every time he went to the Human World, the same one he had tried to recruit, the same one he had tried to kill.

His heart clenched every time he saw the black-haired man. It started out as a simple want for the man to be by his side, but it gradually morphed into something he couldn't explain anymore. The last time had been the worst. The windswept, black hair that shimmered in the sun, the conviction in those brilliant, red eyes, and that tiny hint of despair behind his lovely mask of confidence. He pulled at the shirt and chain covering his chest as a choked laugh escaped his lips, humorless and mental. He didn't understand this feeling. This feeling of happiness and anger, joy and remorse; he didn't understand it at all.

He felt himself shaking and brought a hand up just to check. He was shaking, but not out of fear or sadness, that much he knew. What was it then? What was this hideous and exciting feeling? Vile and vexing, yet pleasurable at the same time.

"Well now, ain't that a scary face."

The flame turned an eerie blue as a foggy picture appeared in the mirror's broken pieces. It gradually clarified into the face of a blond man―cracked and with gaps but still recognizable―with some stubbles on his chin and heterochromic eyes, one red and the other gold. The man's face was lax, but his eyes held a dangerous animosity, "The only one able to contact me like this is Lord Rchimedes. How'd you know the code?"

"Domulu. Just as expected." So those visions had been from Rchimedes, the first Demon Lord. "I need your to do something."

Domulu raised a scruffy, blond eyebrow, distrust still clear in his multi-colored eyes, "I ain't doing nothing until you tell me who you are."

Maou's smiled, "I am Maou, the fourth and last Demon Lord of this world. You are Domulu, a normal citizen of the Demon World on the surface, but actually an information broker that deals in the underground. Rchimedes' told me all about you. I suppose you could call me his messenger."

"Is that so? And what do you want, Rchimedes' messenger?

"I heard you like destruction, so I have a proposition for you."

The blond lit up a cigarette and took a drag. He blew out the grey smoke as he stared at Maou with a calculating gaze, most likely weighing his options, "Alright, Maou-bouzu. I'll listen to what you have to say. Better be exciting."

"It will be, but for now, it's pretty simple," Maou rested his cheek on his hand, elbow on his knee, with his toes as his only support, "I just need you to gather the strongest demons in the Demon World, one's that will listen to my commands without a hassle, and gather them in front of my castle."

"And may I ask what it is you have planned?"

Maou smiled innocently, "No."

"And how do you plan to pay me? Some measly city trampling won't cut it, ya know."

"It's gonna be _way_ more than just destroying cities," Maou grinned, "If you really need a payment, then I'm paying you with your life."

Maou's smile turned sinister, his eyes seemed to look through the glass, like they were looking straight at each other face to face, "You see, I have a lot planned, and nothing will stand in my way. You're either with me or against me."

If he had been frightened, Domulu didn't show it. A puff of smoke covered the glass. Domulu closed his eyes before grinning, "Fine. You win, Maou-bouzu. Maybe this'll be interesting after all. I'll bring you your demons by sunhigh tomorrow."

"Great! Oh, and one more thing," The smile vanished as his face darkened dramatically, "I don't appreciate that title. You don't want to make me mad, so I suggest you don't make it strike three."

The blond shivered this time, but continued to act ignorant, "Sure thing, Maou-san. See ya tomorrow."

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**Story's moving now. This is the last part of chapter 5 that wasn't finished when I posted chapter 5, so it's really short (shorter than I expected). I still have planning to do….**

**I repeat: This is not a romance. I might put in some RosAru tho, just hints, nothing more.**


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